Jonathan India had three hits and matched his career highs of two home runs and five RBIs as the visiting Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago Cubs 8-5 on Saturday.
Buck Farmer (1-3) tossed 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief for the victory. The Cubs brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning before Alexis Diaz struck out Ian Happ for his 11th save.
TJ Friedl, Matt McLain and Tyler Stephenson had two hits apiece for the Reds, who finished with 12 hits after recording a season-high 19 in a 9-0 win over the Cubs on Friday.
Dansby Swanson and Happ each drove in two runs for Chicago, which has lost three straight. The Cubs took an early lead on Happ’s run-scoring double in the first inning against Brandon Williamson, who was making his third career start.
After Cincinnati pulled even on Nick Senzel’s RBI single in the top of the second against Cubs starter Jameson Taillon, the Cubs answered with three runs in the bottom half. Nico Hoerner delivered a two-out RBI single, and Swanson’s single brought in two more.
Williamson was lifted after giving up four runs on six hits with three walks and three strikeouts over 4 1/3 innings. The Reds pushed a run across in the third when India’s two-out single scored Friedl from second base.
Chicago kept its lead until the fifth, when the Reds scored three runs to move ahead 5-4. Taillon gave up a run-scoring single to McLain and was relieved by Michael Fulmer (0-4), who promptly yielded India’s two-run homer to right field.
The Cubs have lost all eight games started this season by Taillon, who allowed four runs on six hits with one walk and five strikeouts over 4 2/3 innings.
Cincinnati tacked on a run in the sixth on Curt Casali’s RBI single and stretched its lead to 8-4 in the seventh against Jeremiah Estrada. McLain singled to begin the inning and scored on India’s two-run blast to left-center field.
India notched the second multi-homer game of his career after entering the contest hitting .214 in his previous 14 games.
Chicago cut into the deficit in the bottom of the seventh against Ian Gibaut when Mike Tauchman scored on Happ’s sacrifice fly.
–Field Level Media
