That day for the Cubs finally arrived on Thursday after the team knocked off the Cincinnati Reds to extend their current winning streak to five games.
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The Cubs (92-65) signaled that their rebuilding was over when they inked Lester (10-12, 3.43 ERA) to a six-year, $155 million deal in December.
Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Josh Smith throws during the second inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Tuesday, September 29, 2015, in Cincinnati.
It might be a meaningless milestone in modern baseball but I’d really like both Rizzo and Kris Bryant get to the 100-RBI mark.
Chris Denorfia also drove in a run and the Cubs overcame two errors to move within two games of idle Pittsburgh in the race for home field in Wednesday’s NL wild-card playoff game.
Jackson added a bases-loaded two-run single in Chicago’s three-run eighth. Jason Bourgeois, Votto, Brandon Phillips, Eugenio Suarez and Tucker Barnhart each had two hits, but the Reds were held scoreless until the seventh inning, when they struck for all three of the runs of the game.
The Reds have dropped 10 in a row after a 4-1 defeat in Tuesday’s series opener. Starling Marte leads Pittsburgh with 162 hits and 79 RBI while Andrew McCutchen and Gregory Polanco have combined for 146 RBI.
Jay Bruce flied out sacrificially twice, and that’s just about the best thing that’s happened to the Cincinnati Reds RF in quite a few time. One positive for the lefty was that he picked up his first major league hit with a double in the bottom of the third inning.
“We’re good and we knew that”, Hammel said.
They have got a bad combination going: An all-rookie rotation and a struggling offense.
The Reds have scored two runs or less seven times during their slump. It’s the team’s most losses in one season at Great American Ball Park and the most overall in a season since 2001, when they were 27-54 at home. The struggling Reds have lost nine straight and managed only three hits in a 5-1 loss at Washington on Monday.
That one has stuck in their memory.
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Cubs: Jon Lester (10-12) has struck out 198 batters, four shy of Ken Holtzman’s club record from 1970 for strikeouts by a Cubs left-hander. Dexter Fowler scored his 100th run, the first Cubs player to cross the plate so many times since Mark DeRosa in 2008. He has no record and a 4.74 ERA in three career matchups, all this season, but the Cubs have won each game.
