Historic day from Cubs outfield leads to big win in series finale
Call it the Jason Heyward game.
Or the Ian Happ game.
Or the Kyle Schwarber game.
All right, maybe it’s best to call it the Cubs’ outfield game. After all, they went a combined 6-for-13 with 2 homers a piece, 3 walks and all 10 RBIs in a 10-1 win over the Reds in the series finale at Great American Ballpark.
It’s the first time a starting outfield has each had a multi-home run game.
“This game has been going on for a while now, so it’s pretty rare to have a first,” Happ said. “To be able to do that as a group with two other guys that you care about a lot and you’ve played with for a long time, that was really special for all of us.”
Schwarber and Heyward each hit their 1st home runs of the day in the 4th inning. Happ joined in on the fun in the 5th and Heyward raced out to the de-facto home run derby lead in the 6th. Happ tied Heyward with his second home run in the 7th.
“I mean it’s nice to be rewarded,” Heyward said. “I feel like we’ve been having all of us tough at-bats, putting a lot of pitches in play hard, taking our walks when we can, so it’s nice to be rewarded and give everyone a breathing room when it comes down to playing these games.”
Not to be outdone, Schwarber joined the 2-home-run club in the 9th with a grand slam. He didn’t want to be left out of the 2-home-run club.
“Great question, I guess so,” Schwarber said with a laugh when asked about not wanting to be left out. “It’s pretty cool, though. Having all of our outfielders go out there and perform at the plate and be able to do our thing in the outfield is pretty cool. Whenever you have a little piece of history, you keep that with you.”
The outfield’s offensive output overshadowed a stellar relief appearance from José Quintana.
Quintana was terrific, as he pitched 3 innings of relief, striking out 6 and allowing 2 hits and a walk.
“I felt great,” Quintana said. “The biggest thing for me is we took a W. I can help my team to win this game. Today I felt more sharp. I feel like I controlled my emotions [more] than last time.
“All my stuff was working, so it’s good to take a W.”
Quintana was originally credited with picking up the win, but it was later corrected to Colin Rea who came in relief of starter Tyler Chatwood.
Chatwood left after 2.1 innings of work with elbow discomfort and will be revaluated during Monday’s off day.
“We’ll get him looked at when we get back home,” Ross said. “We’ll give you guys a heads up of what’s going on.”