CINCINNATI -- There was the sense Saturday that the best offense in the Majors was going to do it again.
Leading off the ninth, Carson Kelly played the role of hero off the bench, filling in for the injured Miguel Amaya, and became the second Cubs player to ding a home run off a foul pole this weekend. A day after erasing a pair of four-run deficits, Chicago had cut a five-run hole down to two. Matt Shaw doubled two batters later with one out.
“I heard it hit off the foul pole,” Kelly said. “I was like, ‘OK, there's a good chance.’ I thought it was gonna stay really fair. And then it kept hooking. I'm like, ‘Oh no.’ And then I heard the ding, and everybody started cheering. I was like, ‘OK, I can keep running.’”
But Ian Happ struck out and Kyle Tucker just got under a 96.5 mph four-seam fastball from Emilio Pagán to fly out to right, as the Reds handed the Cubs a 6-4 loss before 40,409 charged-up fans at Great American Ball Park.
“We got the tying run up there with Kyle Tucker. I was not going to complain about that,” said Cubs manager Craig Counsell. “If we could have gotten the tying run with Tucker up there, we'd take that situation. So we gave it a shot and [Pagán] made some nice pitches to both guys.”
Chicago's offense, which entered Saturday leading the Majors with 306 runs, has proven it is capable of great things, having already erased a pair of four-run deficits and scoring 11 unanswered runs in the final three innings of Friday’s 13-6 win.
The Cubs have scored at least three runs in an inning 44 times already this season and plated one run in each of the final three innings Saturday, but they couldn’t repeat Friday’s dramatics.
As Saturday proved, there will be games where the offense can’t come to the rescue.
For the second straight game, Cincinnati made Chicago’s starter labor through the first inning. Colin Rea (3-1) needed 35 pitches to get through the opening frame and finished after five innings with 108 pitches, the second-most in his career. After Santiago Espinal walked with one out in the first, Elly De La Cruz lit into a 93.8 mph fastball and drove it several rows deep in right for a 2-0 Reds lead.
“The walk in the first inning, the walk to Espinal is what hurts you,” Counsell said. “We can’t walk him. So he makes it hard. He fouls off pitches and does a nice job with it. But you can't walk him right there. And De La Cruz is a good hitter, and he’s gonna do some damage. You limit it by limiting the baserunners in front of him. We couldn’t do that today.”
Rea, who had been 5-0 in eight previous career outings against Cincinnati (seven starts), would allow all six runs on seven hits while taking his first loss of 2025.
The Cubs started to make some noise in the third against Cincinnati lefty Andrew Abbott (4-0), who allowed just one run on six hits over 5 2/3 innings.
Justin Turner opened the inning by becoming the first Cubs batter aged 40 years or older to homer in a regular-season game since Gary Gaetti in 1999.
His third-inning blast to the seats in left-center cut Cincinnati’s lead in half, 2-1, and allowed him to join a select group in Cubs history. In addition to Turner and Gaetti, the 40-and-up home run fraternity includes Charlie Root, Davey Lopes, Ernie Banks and Walker Cooper.
The Cubs continued to make solid contact against Abbott immediately following the home run, keeping Cincinnati center fielder TJ Friedl very busy. Matt Shaw lined out to center. Following a sharp single from Happ, Tucker drove a deep blast to the warning track. But Friedl drew a bead on it and caught it just as he crashed into the wall. The inning ended when Friedl caught Seiya Suzuki’s fly to the gap in right-center.
“It’s tough to complain about anything we did offensively today,” Counsell said. “We did a good job. We had no luck against Abbott, swung the bats well, did exactly what we wanted. To leave them with one run against him, that leaves a bad taste in your mouth. We definitely swung the bats better than one run.”
The worst news of the day concerned Miguel Amaya. The Cubs' catcher strained his left oblique on a throw down to second to try and nab De La Cruz in the fifth. After the team's medical staff and Counsell came out to visit, the decision was made to pull Amaya from the game in favor of Kelly.
“It’s going to be an IL [situation],” Counsell said after the game.
Amaya said he is expecting to get tests and imaging back in Chicago on Tuesday.
“I’m a competitor,” Amaya said. “I love to be on the field, especially with this team. I’m sad that I’m going to be out. I don’t know how long, but just going to be from the outside, rooting for the team.”
Ironically, Kelly threw out De La Cruz attempting to steal second in the seventh.