Rain and errors doom Chicago Cubs as Cincinnati Reds win 7-5 – MLB Update
A flurry of rain, a few mismanaged blunders resulted in Chicago Cubs’ loss on Monday, May 17 as Cincinnati Reds made their way to a 7-5 win at the Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati.
If the rain did nothing, it did cause increasing trouble for Kerry Wood who fumbled the wet ball and with an eighth-inning force-out.
The Cubs’ reliever committed a throwing error that ended with a two runs score for Cincinnati. That was followed by tiebreaking sacrifice fly of Chris Heisey which let the Reds go for a seemingly difficult win.
Cincinnati has maintained their lead with remarkable success. The Reds currently head the series with a 4-1 lead, while winning their second game in this series against the Cubs. This victory came with a few mistakes that the Cubs could have avoided had
they tried.
In the Cubs’ mistakes were moments of distinct pleasure for the Reds who were uncertain up until the end of the game as to which side was going to win. "That was unbelievable," Reds’ manager Dusty Baker said. "Just goes to show that if you stick around here,
you'll see a lot of things -- a lot of knockdown, drag-out games. It's a challenge."
Wood must have been starkly disappointed and saddened by the error he committed. Although he had understandably ensured being in the grip of ball, the weather prevented him from being right on the spot.
“The ball's going to be wet, so you just make sure you make a good throw and I threw it to the wall," Wood said. "I had a [good] grip. When I went to go throw it, it slips out."
Edinson Volquez who was not impressive either with the ball, did somehow contain the Cubs’ hitters. "I didn't see what happened," Volquez said. "Dusty told me to swing at the first pitch. That's what I did. I didn't see what happened after that."
Carlos Pena provided an extremely favourable start for the Cubs with the three-run homer in the very first inning. Volquez, who has been in trouble for quite a while now, was subject to a massive hit. Pena homered to right to give an early 3-0 lead to the
Cubs in an overcast night.
Volquez levelled the score for Cincinnati in the fourth inning with astounding errors committed by the Cubs. Matt Garza came to pitch for the Cubs and Volquez scored a three-run homer on errors to bring the score 3-3.
Darwin Barney gave a 4-3 lead to the Cubs in the seventh inning with his single while Anthony Campana took it to 5-3 in the eighth inning. Just when the Cubs thought they had secured a comfortable lead, a slew of errors completely changed the map of the
game. The Reds managed to take advantage and get a convincing win in the end.
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