Reds take advantage of wild Kimbrel, beat Cubs for DH split
CINCINNATI (AP) — Nick Castellanos raced home on Craig Kimbrel’s third wild pitch of the seventh inning, and the Cincinnati Reds avoided a doubleheader sweep by topping the Chicago Cubs 6-5 on Saturday night.
Cincinnati took advantage of another rough performance by Kimbrel (0-1), who got off to a tough start this year before stringing together five consecutive scoreless appearances. The right-hander threw half of his 22 pitches for strikes in his shaky outing against the Reds.
Curt Casali reached on a leadoff walk before Freddy Galvis pinch-ran for the catcher. After Mark Payton struck out swinging, Castellanos walked and Aristides Aquino hit a tying RBI single.
Another wild pitch and an intentional walk loaded the bases for Mike Moustakas, who struck out swinging. But Kimbrel threw a wild pitch while facing rookie José García, bringing home the winning run.
Joel Kuhnel (1-0) pitched the seventh for the win.
In the opener, Yu Darvish scattered seven hits over six innings, Anthony Rizzo homered twice and the Cubs snapped a three-game skid with a 3-0 victory.
Darvish (6-1) earned his sixth straight win. He struck out eight and walked two, winning his matchup with Trevor Bauer, one of Cincinnati’s best pitchers.
“It was big for sure,” Darvish said of beating Bauer. “He’s amazing this year. I was thinking before the game, ‘I can’t give them more than two runs.’”
The teams combined for five home runs in the second game. Jesse Winker hit a two-run shot, and Casali and Joey Votto connected for solo drives. Ian Happ hit a leadoff homer for Chicago in the first, a fly ball that barely cleared the fence while squeezing past the right-field foul pole, and David Bote launched a two-run shot.
Cubs manager David Ross and coach Mike Borzello and Reds manager David Bell, Votto and Winker all were ejected in the fourth following an exchange of high pitches that sparked a shouting match and cleared the benches and bullpens for each side. No punches were thrown.
