Hey, hey, whaddya say, the Cubbies didn’t win today

Well, that was outstanding.

With a dramatic 3-2 extra-inning victory, the Reds (72-81) have won:

• this 3-game series against the Cubs,
• the 9-game series at Wrigley Field,
• the 10 game series against the Cubs at GABP,
• the season series over the Cubs 11-8.

The loss prevented the Cubs from gaining ground against the Brewers. St. Louis won today. The Cubs now play the Cardinals 7 times in their final 10 games starting tomorrow night. Wins the past two nights don’t make up for Kris Bryant’s fateful 8th inning home run back on August 11 that all-but extinguished the Reds hopes of getting back into contention. But it helps.

And the Reds squeaked out a 5-4 record on their final road trip of 2019.

Tyler Mahle! He pitched 6 fantastic innings, giving up only one hit and two walks. He struck out three. The only run that scored while he was pitching was the most improbable “earned” run of the season. It took a missed tag at second base, a wild pitch and an outfield throw way up the line. I’ve been telling you for a while now, and so did Nick Carrington, Tyler Mahle is having a great year for a #5 pitcher, with solid improvement across the board in the metrics that matter. If you still care about pitcher wins after a game like tonight, it’s hard to know what to say.

Robert Stephenson pitched two good innings. He was close to a dominant 7th, but gave up a llong ball to Willson Contreras on a pretty good pitch. Stephenson came back to pitch a shutout 8th. Sal Romano and Amir Garrett combined to retired the Cubs 3-4-5 hitters in order in the 9th inning. Garrett struck out Kyle Schwarber From Middletown™ the only batter he faced. Raisel Iglesias earned save #33. He’s been practically perfect in September.

Eugenio Suarez hit his 48th home run, setting all kinds of records: most HR in a season by a player from Venezuela, tied for most HR for an NL third baseman and tied for most home runs against the Cubs in a season. He’s one HR out of the MLB lead. Watch these speeches by Suarez and manager David Bell.

The clubhouse is rockin’ for Geno’s record breaker! 🇻🇪 pic.twitter.com/rC67CPzcIH

— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) September 19, 2019

Jose Iglesias, in his first game back in the lineup after missing several with an injury, had three hits including the game-winning double in the 10th inning.

Michael Lorenzen played CF the night after pitching 1.1 innings. He was 1-for-5. Coming into tonight’s game, he led Reds position players in average exit velocity (by a LOT). Sure, the sample size was 22. But 22 isn’t just 2. He’s sustained an exit velocity of 97 mph over 20+ balls struck. Tonight, Lorenzen added hits of 103 mph and 99.7 mph. Aaron Judge leads qualified batters with an average exit velocity of 95.7 mph. Only six players average above 93 mph. Michael Lorenzen is averaging 97 mph.

The Reds have Thursday off before starting the final home stand of the season, with three games against the Mets this weekend and three games against the Brewers next week.