CHICAGO – Tyler Mahle dominated the Chicago Cubs lineup for four innings Sunday before he pitched out of the stretch for the first time all afternoon.
He lost his perfect game with a four-pitch walk to open the fifth inning and he lost his no-hitter on a single to center by Willson Contreras.
Mahle was pitching with a five-run lead, but the Cincinnati Reds didn’t want to let the Cubs back into the game. A reliever started warming up in the bullpen. The Wrigley Field crowd of 24,824 finally grew louder.
The response by the 26-year-old Mahle? Strikeout. Strikeout. Strikeout. Inning over and the Reds rolled to a 5-1 victory over the Cubs in their series finale. The Reds finished their six-game road trip with a 3-3 record.
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Mahle’s one fault is that he didn’t pitch deep into the game. He needed 98 pitches to record 15 outs. He controlled the action with a well-located fastball and a backdoor slider, but the Cubs fouled 26 pitches.
Despite a lot of spoiled pitches on the edges of the plate and a lot of deep counts, Mahle kept dialing in with another tough pitch. He permitted one hit and one walk in five scoreless innings while striking out eight. He was one strikeout from matching his season-high.
The Cubs, who had their six-game winning streak snapped, hadn’t lost a game by more than one run this entire month. They hadn’t given up more than four runs in a game since May 15.
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All those streaks came to end as the Reds capitalized on the Cubs’ defensive mistakes. Cubs starter Jake Arrieta allowed six hits and five runs (two earned) in 3 2/3 innings while walking four and striking out three.
Eugenio Suárez, still in his first week as a leadoff hitter, hammered a solo homer to the last row of the bleachers in left field to begin the fifth inning. Suárez appeared to break into a smile immediately after he connected with a hanging changeup that he drove 433 feet. The ball left Suárez’s bat at 109 mph.
It was Suárez’s 12th home run of the season and his third out of the leadoff spot.
With two outs in the fifth inning, Tyler Stephenson reached on a throwing error by third baseman Patrick Wisdom. Stephenson advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored when Tyler Naquin lined an RBI single into center field.
The Reds took a 3-0 lead in the first inning, the first time they held a lead against the Cubs this weekend, benefitting from an extra out.
After loading the bases with two singles and a walk, Naquin drove in the game’s first run with a sacrifice fly to center field. The next batter, Kyle Farmer, hit a ground ball to Kris Bryant, the Cubs’ first baseman. Bryant bobbled the ball and Arrieta was late to cover first base. Bryant instead threw to second, which seemed to catch Stephenson, the runner, off guard because he didn’t slide.
Stephenson was initially ruled out, which would’ve ended the inning, but it was overturned after a lengthy replay review and ruled an error on Bryant. Two pitches later, with the bases loaded, Arrieta hit Tucker Barnhart with a curveball that spiked 10 feet in front of the plate and bounced off Barnhart’s front leg.
The snowball continued for Arrieta when Jonathan India hit an RBI single on a slow roller to third base. Cubs third baseman Patrick Wisdom tried a barehanded play, but India easily beat the throw.
Arrieta has allowed 13 hits and 12 runs (nine earned) in seven innings against the Reds this season.
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The Cubs ended the shutout in the eighth inning when they produced three hits off lefty reliever Cionel Pérez, but Tejay Antone earned the four-out save. Antone outdueled Javier Báez in a six-pitch at-bat that lasted more than two-and-a-half minutes as the crowd chanted “Jav-ee, Jav-ee,” inducing a groundout to strand two runners.
Antone clapped his right hand into his glove to celebrate the out.
The Reds will return to Great American Ball Park for a three-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies at 2:10 p.m. Monday.
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