By Hal McCoy
The Chicago Cubs did everything they could conjure up to lose a baseball game to the Cincinnati Reds.
And they succeeded specacularly during a 6-4 defeat to the Reds Friday night in Great American Ball Park.
It started with the odds-on favorite to win the National League MVP, Pete Crow-Armstrong, he of 44 home runs.
He was 0 for 5 with three strikeouts and left nine teammates standing on the basepaths.
The biggest came in the eighth inning with two on base and the Reds clinging to a 6-4 lead.
Teejay Antone struck him out on three pitches. He also struck out for the third out with the bases loaded in the second.
And he flied out with two on in the fourth and popped out in sixth with two on.
With PCA at bat in crucial situations, Reds manager Tito Francona said, “From the sixth I kept looking at the scoreboard and seeing his stats. It wasn’t a good feeling.”
But the Reds survived thanks in part to the biggest part of the Cubs Achilles heel.
The bullpen. It’s awful.
Since mid-August the Cubs have had leads in 12 games that they eventually lost, with eight blown saves.
And Cubs starter Clay Holmes was not a prince of pitches. He walked five Reds during his 5 1/3 innings and four came around to score.
He started the sixth inning and walked Elly De La Cruz, who was on base four times with two walks and two singles.
With one out, he walked Tyler Stephenson and JJ Bleday to fill the bases, all via walks.
Cubs manager Craig Counsell made a strange decision. He replaced Holmes with Javier Assad to face Eugenio Suarez.
Suarez was two-for-two career against Assad with a home run. Make it 3-for-3. Suarez singled home De La Cruz to tie it 4-4.
Assad got the second out and slipped two strikes past Jose Trevino. Then he threw a pitch that Trevino devours — an eye-high fastball out of the strike zone.
Trevino tomahawked a two-run single to right for the two runs that gave the Reds the 6-4 lead.
And Trevino wasn’t finished.
The Cubs had Michael Busch on first with two outs in the ninth against Reds closer Emilio Pagan.
First baseman Sal Stewart didn’t hold Busch on and for some strange and foolish reason, with his team down two runs, Busch tried to steal second.
The Reds sniffed it out. A pitch-out was called and Trevino threw a blue-darter to second. But umpire James Jean called Busch safe.
A challenge was sent to New York and the call was reversed. Busch was out, game over.
The Los Angeles Dodgers clinched the National League West title this week against the Reds and the Cubs are trying to clinch a playoff spot.
“I know it hasn’t really gone our way this year,” said Trevnio. “It’s not easy coming to the ball park because the next few days doesn’t really matter to us.
“It takes a lot of heart and a lot of pride to come out here, show up every day and play in situations like that,” he added. “They could come in here and clinch on our field, celebrate in our clubhouse like the Dodgers did.
“It’s up to us to hold it off for another day,” he said. “I give it up to our pitchers and hitters who come early every day. It says a lot about our group.”
For Pagan it was his 24th save, his 17th since the All-Star break, most in the majors.
“It is a good feeling to go out there and do my job for my team, but realistically and being honest, being in the playoffs is more important than individual statistics,” said Pagan.
“It’s unfortunate that the season hasn’t gone the way we wanted it to,” he added. “But I’m glad I’m coming through and doing my job, but I wish it was in more meaningful games.”
It was a meaningful day for the Cubs. While they still hold a 7-4 season’s advantage over the Reds, the Reds are the only teeam in the National League Central that the Cubs are over .500 against.
They are only .500 or worse against the other three teams and are 22-23 against NLCS foes.
Chase Burns, Cincinnati’s 15-game winner who is limited to three innings down the stretch, pitched his allotted three innings and gave up two runs, four hits, walked two and struck out four.
He began the game by striking out both Crow-Armstrong and Seiya Suzuki.
He gave up three straight one-out singles in the second for a run and a two-out home run to Ian Happ in the third.
He turned a 3-2 lead over to just called-up Juilian Aguiar, a Tommy John surgery victim who hadn’t thrown a pitch in the majors since 2024.
He gave the Reds a three-inning bridge with one shaky inning. He gave up a two-out, two-run single to Suzuki in the fourth that gave the Cubs a 4-3 lead.
Brock Burke pitched a 1-2-3 seventh with a strikeout, Tejay Antone retired the first two in the eighth before putting two Cubs aboard before striking out Crow-Armstrong.
And Pagan put the cap on it.