Jason Heyward and Addison Russell both homered, and Kris Bryant drove in a pair of runs as the Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds 8-6 in a back-and-forth game at Wrigley Field Saturday.
Albert Almora Jr. also hit his sixth home run of the season in the game, and Kyle Schwarber drove in an RBI and scored a run in the victory.
For the first time in his Cubs career, Yu Darvish pitched beyond the sixth inning, going seven-plus innings while giving up 12 hits and six earned runs in the contest. Kyle Ryan, Dillon Maples, and Tyler Chatwood combined to shut the door on the Reds, with Chatwood earning the save with a scoreless ninth inning.
The offensive fireworks got underway in the second inning, when Tucker Barnhart homered to left field to give the Reds a 2-0 lead. The Cubs responded with home runs in the second and fourth innings, as Almora and Russell both went deep to give the Cubs back a 3-2 lead. Anthony Rizzo then drilled an RBI double to deep right-center, scoring Kris Bryant and Kyle Schwarber to put CHicago ahead 5-2.
The Reds responded in the next inning, as Eugenio Suárez singled to left field and Yasiel Puig hammered a solo home run to left to make it a 5-4 game.
Once again the Cubs responded in the bottom of the frame, as Heyward hit a home run to left-center to make it a 6-4 game.
After clawing back another run in the top of the sixth, the Reds finally tied the game in the eighth inning, with Derek Dietrich homering to center field off of Darvish to knot things up at 6-6.
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In the bottom of the frame, David Bote drove in the go-ahead run with a double to center field, and then Schwarber added a sacrifice fly for a key insurance run.
The Cubs and Reds will wrap up their series on Sunday afternoon at the Friendly Confines. José Quintana will take the ball for the Cubs, and Illinois-native Tanner Roark will pitch for the Reds.
