The last-place Cincinnati Reds slammed the Chicago Cubs – again.
Anthony DeSclafani hit the first grand slam by a Cincinnati pitcher in 59 years C.J. Uzomah Jersey , helping the Reds beat the Chicago Cubs 11-2 on Saturday for their sixth consecutive victory.
It was Cincinnati’s third slam in five days and major league-leading seventh of the season, two short of the record set in 2002. Jesse Winker hit one in the series opener against Chicago on Thursday night.
The last Reds pitcher to hit a grand slam was Bob Purkey against the Cubs on Aug. 1, 1959.
Tucker Barnhart and Joey Votto also went deep in front of a crowd of 36,818, Cincinnati’s largest since opening day. Votto hit a three-run shot off backup catcher Chris Gimenez in the eighth.
”We’re playing clean baseball,” interim manager Jim Riggleman said. ”We’ve strung some good ballgames together.”
The Reds matched their longest win streak of the season and won a third straight game against the Cubs for the first time since winning five in a row in 2014.
”They definitely have played much better,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. ”They deserved all three. Our pitching was in disarray, and they took advantage of it.”
Willson Contreras and Ben Zobrist homered for Chicago, which has lost three straight games for the first time since a five-game slide from May 1 through May 6. Zobrist and Ian Happ each had two of the Cubs’ six hits.
Contreras’ fifth homer trimmed Cincinnati’s lead to 2-1 in the second, but the Reds responded with six in the third.
Votto sparked the rally with a two-out walk against Luke Farrell (2-3). Brian Duensing then came in and yielded run-scoring hits to Scooter Gennett and Eugenio Suarez with his first two pitches.
A walk to Winker and Adam Duvall’s infield single loaded the bases for DeSclafani, who drove a 3-2 pitch from Duensing into the seats in left for his first career homer.
”I got to a full count there,” DeSclafani said. ”I knew a fastball was coming, so I just tried to square it up and it happened to go out. At first, I didn’t think it was a home run. but I saw the left fielder kind of give up on it. Then I saw the ball get into the stands. It was awesome. Everything in that at-bat happened so quick, from when I swung and hit the ball until I started shaking hands in the dugout.”
DeSclafani (3-1) also pitched a season-high 6 1/3 innings in his fourth start after beginning the year on the disabled list with a left oblique strain. He allowed three hits, struck out three and walked four.
Farrell, a former Red and the son of ex-Red Sox manager and current Reds scout John Farrell, yielded Barnhart’s two-run homer in the first. He was charged with three runs and two hits in his second career start.
”I made one big mistake to Barnhart,” Farrell said. ”They’re an aggressive team. I got too aggressive with a fastball.”
GOOD SAMARITAN
Cubs left fielder Kyle Schwarber, who grew up in nearby Middletown Vincent Rey Jersey , took an autographed bat to a fan who was injured by one of his foul balls. The fan walked out with help wearing a white bandage around his head.
RED HOT
Cincinnati third baseman Eugenio Suarez had three hits, extending his career-high hitting streak to 13 games. It’s the longest streak by a Red this season.
FOUR FOR FOUR
DeSclafani is the fourth Reds pitcher to hit a grand slam, joining Purkey, Al Hollingsworth in 1936, also against the Cubs, and Icebox Chamberlain with an inside-the-park homer in 1892.
ABOVE, BEYOND
Cubs third baseman Tommy La Stella crashed into the first row of seats down the left-field line while catching Votto’s first-inning popup.
TRAPPED
Contreras’s homer survived a crew-chief replay review after video showed a fan wearing a Cubs jersey trapped it with his glove against the top of the fence before hauling it in.
FRUSTRATED
Chicago bench coach Brandon Hyde was ejected by plate umpire Greg Gibson in the top of the fourth inning for complaining about ball-strike calls.
WHITE FLAG
Gimenez made his 10th career pitching appearance and first for the Cubs.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Cubs: LHP Rob Zastryzny left in the sixth with what Maddon called left side tightness.
Reds: INF Nick Senzel, Cincinnati’s top pick and the second overall selection in the 2016 draft, is scheduled to undergo season-ending surgery to repair a torn tendon in his right index finger. He suffered the injury on Friday with Triple-A Louisville.
UP NEXT
Cubs: If Tyler Chatwood’s wife doesn’t go into labor, the right-hander will start Sunday’s series finale.
Reds: RHP Sal Romano (4-7) gave up six hits and seven runs in a 10-0 loss to Chicago on May 19.
The St. Louis Cardinals left Arizona feeling a little bit better about themselves, thanks to a late-inning surge by the offense and another strong outing from Miles Mikolas.
The Cardinals scored seven times in the seventh and eighth innings to beat Arizona 8-4 on Wednesday night. After coming to town on a four-game losing streak and off a three-game sweep at the hands of Atlanta, St. Louis took two of three from the first-place Diamondbacks.
Yadier Molina’s three-run homer on the first pitch from reliever Fernando Salas highlighted a five-run Cardinals seventh inning after Arizona had nursed a 2-1 lead through six in front of a sellout crowd of 44,072.
”Had some big hits today,” St. Louis manager Mike Matheny said. ”It allows those big five-run innings to happen. Wear the pitcher down, wear the defense down. Then you have Yadi come in and do something special on the back end.”
Tommy Pham drove in three Cardinals runs with a double and two singles. Matt Carpenter doubled twice and singled with one RBI.
”Carp kind of set the tone. He got on base a lot,” Pham said. ”I think we had good at-bats. Even when the results weren’t there, we made guys throw pitches. That’s key. If a guy is taking four or five plus pitches to get outs, that means you are grinding as a hitter. When you put that together as a team, it wears out pitching staffs.”
The Diamondbacks dropped to 1-5 on their homestand and lead the surging Los Angeles Dodgers by just a half-game in the NL West.
Mikolas (9-3) gave up two runs and seven hits, walked four and struck out three.
Arizona reliever Yoshihisa Hirano (2-1) had his franchise-record streak of 26 games without allowing a run end when Yairo Munoz homered to lead off the seventh. Hirano gave up four runs Authentic Albert Wilson Jersey , one earned, on three hits in two-thirds of an inning for his first loss since coming to the major leagues from Japan this season.
”Yoshi’s human,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. ”That’s what it means, right? And he’s absolutely spoiled us. He’s been a slam-dunk reliever and he made a really tough game look easy for a long time.”
After Munoz’s homer, shortstop Ketel Marte booted pinch-hitter Tyler O’Neill’s grounder for an error. With one out and O’Neill on second, Pham singled to center to put the Cardinals up 3-2. Center fielder Jarrod Dyson left the game with discomfort in his right groin area, Lovullo said.
Salas relieved Hirano and gave up the big hit to Molina, who homered twice in the series.
”It was like two totally different games,” Lovullo said. ”The first six innings were exactly the way you’d like to see guys go out and execute and do their job, and then the final three innings unfortunately we couldn’t execute in a lot of key areas.”
HARD-LUCK LEFTY
Arizona starter Patrick Corbin allowed one run and six hits in six innings, his third straight strong outing without a decision. He’s given up two runs in 19 innings during those three starts.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Cardinals: Paul DeJong (broken left hand) homered and doubled and played shortstop all nine innings Tuesday night in his fourth rehab game for Triple-A Memphis. Matheny said DeJong would not be activated Thursday in San Francisco but could be at some time during the four-game series.
Diamondbacks: Right-handed reliever Randall Delgado (left oblique strain) was scheduled to make another rehab appearance for Triple-A Reno and is expected to be activated Thursday, the end of his rehab assignment. … OF Steven Souza Jr. (strained right pectoral) had Wednesday off in his rehab assignment with Reno after homering twice for the Aces on Tuesday night. Souza has three homers in his last two rehab games.
UP NEXT
Cardinals: Head to San Francisco for four games against the Giants. RHP Luke Weaver (4-7, 5.16 ERA) starts for St. Louis in Thursday night’s opener. Johnny Cueto (3-0, 0.84) comes off the disabled list to pitch for the Giants.
Diamondbacks: RHP Shelby Miller (0-2, 11.42), following two rough starts in his return from Tommy John surgery, takes the mound Thursday night in the opener of a four-game home series against San Diego. LHP Eric Lauer (3-5, 5.08) goes for the Padres.