Adbert Alzolay, so regular because the Chicago Cubs nearer since being trusted with the function two months into the season, wanted two extra outs to safe a doubleheader sweep Friday at Great American Ball Park.
His strikeout of Elly De La Cruz, the phenom’s fourth in Game 2, pitted Alzolay towards his former teammate Nick Martini, who spent 25 video games with the Cubs in 2021. Martini cranked a 1-1 slider over the right-field wall for a tying house run and blown save for Alzolay’s second straight look.
Alzolay’s sometimes dependable slider betrayed him once more with two outs and the successful run on third following Christian Encarnacion-Strand’s single and stolen base on Alzolay’s strikeout of Will Benson that superior the runner an additional base on Yan Gomes’ throwing error.
The subsequent pitch ended it. Noelvi Marte sliced Alzolay’s slider on the outer half to middle area handy the Cubs a 3-2 walk-off loss.
The disappointing finish to a doubleheader that begins a important stretch towards pursuing wild-card groups doesn’t overshadow what the Cubs (72-63) noticed from rookie left-hander Jordan Wicks in Game 1. The Reds compelled Wicks to battle early, inflicting his pitch depend to climb by shedding his changeup to drive different pitchs. Wicks and catcher Miguel Amaya recognized the Reds’ method, reverse of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ aggressiveness in his big-league debut final weekend, and adjusted to extra cutters and four-seam fastballs.
Wicks earned the win within the Cubs’ 6-2 victory in Game 1 by limiting the Reds to 1 run and 5 hits in 5 innings.
“I definitely felt a little bit more comfortable out there from the start,” Wicks stated. “When the scouting report gets out, that’s going to be the plan (against his changeup) and we prepared for it. We’ve got other pitches for that very reason. We’re going to stick with the bread and butter. Just because they might be laying off of it doesn’t mean we’re just going to go completely away from it.”
The Game 1 win marked the primary time in franchise historical past the Cubs went from 10 video games beneath .500 to 10 video games above .500 in the identical season.
Cody Bellinger and Ian Happ led the offense each video games. Bellinger hit a solo house run in every sport, the fifth time this season he went gone deep in back-to-back video games. Happ doubled and homered in Game 1 and hit the go-ahead RBI single within the fifth inning of Game 2.
But letting the second sport get away was a missed alternative to place distance between themselves and the Reds within the wild-card race whereas firmly maintaining the first-place Milwaukee Brewers of their sights. The Cubs aren’t going to overreact to 1 sport, regardless of the frustration surrounding a walk-off loss, which might’t be pinned solely on Alzolay. In a bullpen sport right-hander José Cuas began after being activated from the bereavement listing, the wasted probabilities within the first inning of Game 2 warrant probably the most scrutiny.
They let Reds starter Lyon Richardson and his wildness off the hook within the first. Three of the primary 4 Cubs batters walked, however the Cubs couldn’t get a run throughout regardless of forcing Richardson to throw 37 pitches within the inning. Dansby Swanson was referred to as out on strikes and Seiya Suzuki whiffed on a 96.8-mph elevated fastball to strike out after getting forward 2-0.
The Cubs characteristic extra veteran expertise than their pitching employees, particularly within the bullpen, and should discover methods to take strain off a bunch that has been requested numerous the final couple of months. Fortunately the Cubs have been good at flushing unhealthy video games and discovering methods to win sequence.
“We scratched and clawed, we fought hard, we just ran out in the back end,” supervisor David Ross stated. “We played really good baseball all day today, a lot of innings, 18 innings, and we come up short right there.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com