Free-Falling Cubs Have Now Lost 12 Straight As They Drop Game To Cincinnati Reds
CINCINNATI (AP) — Jonathan India homered and drove in five runs, Wade Miley threw seven shutout innings and the Cincinnati Reds beat Chicago 14-5 on Monday night, handing the free-falling Cubs their 12th straight loss.
Joey Votto, the 37-year-old Cincinnati first baseman who has been on a tear since the All-Star break, got the 2,000th hit of his career, a solid single in the seventh. Votto came up again later in the inning and drove in a run with another base hit during an eight-run Reds outburst.
Miley (10-4) allowed four hits and struck out seven as the second-place Reds won for the ninth time in 13 games and moved within 7 1/2 games of idle Milwaukee in the NL Central.
Following a huge selloff at the trade deadline last month, the Cubs have lost 12 in a row for the first time since 2012.
India's two-out drive into the upper deck in the fourth scored Miley and gave the Reds a 2-0 lead. Aristides Aquino and Tucker Barnhart also slammed two-run homers.
Cincinnati's outburst in the seventh was highlighted by India's bases-loaded double, his third hit of the night.
Cubs right-hander Justin Steele (2-2), making his second major league start, allowed five hits and two runs over four innings.
Chicago scored five runs off two Reds relievers in the eighth, but Jeff Hoffman retired the side in order in the ninth.
TRAINERS ROOM
Cubs: RF Jason Heyward (index finger inflammation) was activated from the 10-day injured list Sunday and was in the lineup. OF Greg Deichmann was sent back to Triple-A Iowa to make room.
Reds: LF Jesse Winker (intercostal strain) is on the 10-day injured list. Winker missed three games due to the same injury, a strain of the muscles around the ribs. He aggravated it after returning to the lineup Sunday, exiting the game after three innings. ... INF José Barrero — known last season as José Garcia and expected by many to be the Reds' shortstop of the future — was called up from Triple-A Louisville.
UP NEXT
Right-hander Kyle Hendricks (13-5, 4.15 ERA) starts for the Cubs against Reds RHP Vladimir Gutierrez (8-3, 3.95). Hendricks had a rough outing Thursday in Chicago's loss to the Brewers, giving up nine runs and 11 hits in four-plus innings. Gutierrez has pitched at least six innings in his last four starts, winning them all.
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