The Sports Xchange
Aug 22, 2017
CINCINNATI -- Ben Zobrist drove in the go-ahead runs with a pinch-hit, two-run double in the seventh inning as the Chicago Cubs rallied for a 13-9 victory over the Cincinnati Reds in the opener of a three-game series on Tuesday night at Great American Ball Park.
The Cubs (67-57) scored 10 runs in the final four innings to move 10 games above .500 for the first time this season.
Zobrist, who was scratched from the starting lineup after he was late arriving from his hometown of Nashville, Tenn., because of a rental car snafu, also had an RBI groundout in the eighth, giving him three RBIs off the bench.
Javier Baez delivered a two-run single with the bases loaded in the seventh.
Hector Rondon (4-1) retired one batter for the win. Wandy Peralta (3-4) allowed three runs in two-thirds of an inning for the loss.
Eugenio Suarez homered twice and had a career-high five RBIs, and Jesse Winker and Scooter Gennett each hit solo homers for Cincinnati (53-73).
Winker's homer off Felix Pena was the first pinch-hit homer of his career.
Reds right-hander Blake Wood allowed five earned runs in one inning.
Reds starter Homer Bailey left after three innings for precautionary reasons with irritation in the back of his right shoulder.
Bailey, who came off the disabled list June 24 after missing most of the past two seasons with elbow and forearm surgeries, was visited by trainers after walking John Lackey in the third inning but remained in the game. Bailey did not return for the fourth, however, exiting after 47 pitches and allowing only one hit.
Reds center fielder Billy Hamilton starred at the plate and in the field. He led off the game with a single, stole his 52nd base of the season, and later scored from third on a wild pitch to put Cincinnati ahead 1-0.
In the second, Hamilton prevented the tying run from scoring with a diving catch of Jason Heyward's line drive for the third out. In the third, Hamilton raced in to make a diving catch on Kris Bryant's sinker line drive to end the inning.
Tucker Barnhart drove home Suarez with a double into the right-field corner in the second. Gennett's 22nd home run of the season and third in his last eight games made it 3-0.
The Cubs loaded the bases in the fifth against Kevin Shackelford, who took over for Bailey, and scratched across a couple runs before Heyward's two-out RBI single tied the score 3-3. But Duvall threw out Ian Happ trying to score the go-ahead run.
Shackelford allowed three runs, three hits and four walks in 1 2/3 innings.
Suarez's three-run shot, his 22nd home run of the season, handed a three-run lead back to Cincinnati in the fifth.
NOTES: Reds RHP Scott Feldman, who is on the disabled list for the second time this season with right knee inflammation, underwent season-ending arthroscopic surgery. ... Reds SS Zack Cozart returned to the lineup after missing two games after being hit on the left leg by a pitch on Friday. ... Three Reds pitchers had hits for the first time since May 19, 1999, at Colorado. ... Reds CF Billy Hamilton's throwing error in the sixth inning snapped a 93-game errorless streak.