By Hal McCoy
When players arrive at Wrigley Field before a game and see the wind blowing out, hitters rub their palms together and pitchers drop their heads between their knees
And that was the case Saturday afternoon, a 10 miles an hour wind blowing straight out.
So as often happens, home runs departed Wrigley Field with the regularity of an ‘L’ trains stopping at the Addison Street station.
Eight home runs left the premises adding up to 3,291 feet.
Unfortunately for the Cincinnati Reds, six were hit by the Chicago Cubs.
That meant the majority of the 37,597 fans were singing ‘Go Cubs go, go Cubs go’ after their team annihilated and obliterated the Reds, 17-5.
Half of the Cubs’ six homers came off the bat of Cubs’ leadoff hitter Pete Crow-Armstrong, his first career three-homer day.
And he hit the two longest — 435 feet and 444 feet — and finished the day with six RBI and 36 home runs for the season.
PCA started it all, too. His first home run came leading off the first inning, the eighth time this season he has led the first inning with a home run.
His first home run came off Reds starter Andrew Abbott and at the time PCA was 0 for 18 against Abbott.
Abbott also gave up a first-inning home run to Alex Bregman to give the Cubs a 3-0 lead.
The Reds quickly fought back in the second when Eugenio Suarez hit a two-run homer off Cubs starter Kevin Gausman, a former Reds pitcher.
But PCA struck again in the second inning, a two-run rip, to give the Cubs a 6-2 lead.
Once again the Reds scrambled back in the third on a two-run home run by Sal Stewart, his 30th and his 104th RBI, cutting Chicago’s advantage to 6-4.
Since the Rookie of the Year award was initiated in 1947, three other rookies had at least 30 homers and at least 100 RBI and all three won the Rookie of the Year award.
Stewart’s home run cut Chicago’s lead to 6-4, but the Reds quit hitting home runs and the Cubs never stopped.
Number nine hitter Carson Kelly blasted a three-run homer in the fifth off Julian Garcia. PCA’s third home run was a three-run rip off Tony Santillan in the seventh. As he rounded the bases, the fans chanted, “MVP, MVP, MVP.”
Then came the total embarrassment and foolishness that teams do when they are more than eight runs behind.
For the fifth time this year catcher Jose Trevino finished the game on the mound for the Reds.
And, of course, he gave up a two-run home run to Seiya Suzuki on a 38 miles an hour eephus pitch.
The Reds are now 17-32 in games decided by five or more runs, meaning the Reds have lost 32 games by five or more runs.
Meanwhile, the Cubs, who are 7-2 against the Reds this season, are 31-13 in blowout games.
In addition, the Reds are 14-28 against National League Central opponents while Chicago is 20-18.
PCA finished the day 4 for 6 with the three homers and six RBI. The top three batters in the Cubs’ order went 10 for 16 with 11 RBI, eight runs scored and five homers.
And the bottom three were just as lethal — 8 for 12 with four RBI, nine runs scored and a home run. The homer was hit by number nine hitter Carson Kelly and number seven hitter Tyrone Taylor was 4 for 5 with three runs scored.
Abbott is 8-11 with a 4.49 earned run average and his day lasted only three innings and he gave up seven runs and eight hits, three of them home runs.
“Yeah, the day was hard,” said Reds manager Tito Francona. “You could tell Abbott was having a tough time with a couple of walks and seven hits in three innings.
“When it looked like we were going to slug our way back into it, I thought, ‘OK, we can go to our ‘pen.’”
That was when Stewart’s homer sliced the lead to 6-4.
“It just didn’t work,” Francona added. “The ball park today played pretty small.”
Well, it did for the Cubs and not so much for the Reds.
On this day, Reds pitchers couldn’t retire a garbage can, other than Chicago’s clean-up hitter. While the Cubs scattered 19 hits and six homers all over Wrigley’s green acres, Michael Busch suffered the ignominy of an 0 for 5.
Stewart’s 30th home run evened him with Frank Robinson, the only other Reds’ rookie to hit 30 home runs. . .and Stewart has a month left.
“When Sal hit his home run, I thought, ‘OK, we’re gonna make a game of this.’ But, no. Sal is having an incredible year. Every day somebody wants to ask me something about him and I understand.”
Stewart has a simple answer as to how he drives in runs: “Figure it out, find a way.”
About joining Robinson in the 30-homer club, he said, “It’s pretty cool. I just stick to what I do well. I feel like I trained for it in the off-season.”
Stewart trains with his mentor, San Diego’s Manny Machado, and he said, “Manny and I train, put in extra work to cover the whole 162 games.
“The job’s not done, I go out there to play to the best of my ability,” he added. “We gotta go play some more series, that’s my main focus.”