Field Level Media
Aug 25, 2018
Daniel Murphy and Kyle Schwarber launched two-run home runs and Javier Baez added a solo shot and drove in three runs overall as the host Chicago Cubs outscored the Cincinnati Reds 10-6 on Saturday afternoon.
Murphy, playing in his fourth game for the Cubs since being acquired from the Washington Nationals, homered to right-center field off Reds starter Luis Castillo. His eighth home run of the season capped a three-run second inning. It was also Murphy's second home run in two days against the Reds.
The Reds pulled to within 3-2 in the top of the fourth, but Schwarber ripped his 23rd of the season in the bottom of the inning to make it a 5-2 lead.
Baez added his 28th homer in the fifth against Reds left-hander Amir Garrett and hit a two-run single in the seventh to raise his National League-leading RBI total to 97.
It was the fourth straight win for the NL Central-leading Cubs, including the first three games of the series. The Reds have lost four in a row and five of six.
Cubs starter Jose Quintana (11-9) survived a few shaky innings to pick up the win. In five-plus innings, he allowed two runs on six hits, with three walks and two strikeouts. He threw 89 pitches, only 49 for strikes.
Castillo (7-11) has now allowed 24 homers this season. In 3 1/3 innings, he gave up five runs on five hits with a walk and two strikeouts.
Quintana escaped a second-and-third, one-out jam in the second inning, but the Reds plated two in the fourth, one on a sacrifice fly by Curt Casali and the second on a two-out single by Castillo.
Anthony Rizzo singled home a run in the sixth, and Baez singled in two more during a three-run seventh to extend the lead to 10-2. The Reds made two costly errors in that inning.
Those extra runs proved important as the Reds scored four in the top of the eighth, three on Casali's fourth home run of the season, followed by a solo shot by pinch hitter Preston Tucker, his sixth.
Ben Zobrist had three of the Cubs' 12 hits, and Rizzo and Baez had two each. Casali and Eugenio Suarez each had two hits for the Reds, who also finished with 12.
--Field Level Media