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Left-hander Josh Osich (1-0) recorded the final
out of the sixth inning to earn the win while Heath Hembree
pitched the ninth for his second save for the Reds, who improved
to 5-4 on their season-long 11-game homestand.
The struggling Cubs lost their seventh straight and 13th in 17
games while falling to 1-7 on their three-city, 10-game road
trip.
The game was Cincinnati's first full-capacity sellout at Great
American Ball Park since 2019, as a vocal crowd of 40,854 turned
out for the first game of the three-game weekend holiday series.
Early on, it was a pitchers' duel as Sonny Gray, returning from
a stint on the injured list due to a sore groin, battled
right-hander Alec Mills (3-2), who held the Reds hitless until a
Jonathan India two-out single in the third.
The game also featured the return of two of Chicago's biggest
bats, as Anthony Rizzo returned from a three-game absence due to
back pain while Kris Bryant was back in the lineup after missing
the final two games in Milwaukee with discomfort in his right
side.
Bryant collected hits in his first two appearances Friday and
scored from first on Jason Heyward's double to right-center in
the fourth off Gray, putting the Cubs up 1-0.
The Reds took the lead when they chased Mills from the game on a
walk to India and a single by Nick Castellanos. Joey Votto,
facing lefty reliever Adam Morgan, then doubled home both
runners with two outs for a 2-1 Cincinnati lead.
Ian Happ singled to right off Hembree in the ninth with two
outs, but pinch-hitter Rafael Ortega struck out to end the game.
--Field Level Media
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