The Chicago Cubs had been struggling to score runs in recent games against the Cincinnati Reds, but their bats came to life in the eighth inning of Sunday’s game at the Great American Ballpark.
The Cubs entered the inning tied at 5-5 with Cincinnati, but by the time they finished they were up 12-5 and in the driver’s seat in the game.
After Dansby Swanson and Seiya Suzuki led off the inning with singles, Jeimer Candelario was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
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Nick Madrigal then followed that up with his patented brand of two-strike magic, slapping a single up the middle to score two runs.
Miles Mastrobuoni reached on an error, and Mike Tauchman took advantage as he singled to right field to score two more runs.
Cody Bellinger then hit a sacrifice fly to left field to score another run, and Swanson capped things off with a slicing double down the right field line to make it a 12-5 game.
MLB
The Cubs entered the contest having lost back-to-back games on walk-offs by the Reds, and were struggling to find their offensive form. They only scored one run on Saturday, a solo home run by Candelario, and lost 2-1 to drop another game in the Central Division standings.