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For the past three years the Chicago Cubs have feasted on the Cincinnati Reds and Friday night was no different. After waiting nearly two hours for first pitch because of a rain delay, the Cubs began the game with five consecutive hits off Homer Bailey and grabbed a 3-0 lead. Game was effectively over.
Jon Lester struck out eight and only gave up two hits and one run in six innings. That’s all the Reds put up, two hits in the loss, as Justin Wilson, Justin Hancock and Mike Montgomery pitched three shutout innings, striking out seven more batters. Meanwhile, the Cubs offense collected 15 hits, including a 4-for-4 night for Addison Russell.
You’ve never seen more of a lifeless team than the Reds Friday night. Even when they thought something good happened, they had it ripped away from them.
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There was a play before that when Eugenio Suarez hit a slow ground ball to third base. Kris Bryant started the easy 5-4-3 double play, as Suarez got maybe halfway down the first base line. Yeah, he just came back from the DL, but it was as dejected of an effort as you’ll see.
But this was the lowlight of the night.
In the eighth inning, down 7-1, with two outs, Jose Peraza hit a grounder to Javier Baez and Alex Blandino was hung out to dry, running from first base. He had nowhere to go, as Baez fielded the ball right in front of him, but Blandino just stopped, looked at Baez and simply walked back to the Reds dugout.
The Cubs made the Reds quit and it was kind of sad to see. Also, it was a hilarious visual.
The slowest force out in MLB history pic.twitter.com/LRKxmmnWGr
— Aldo Soto (@AldoSoto21) May 19, 2018
Poor Reds. Oh, how I’ve missed seeing the Cubs play against them.
