Cincinnati won four one-run games and got blown out in its one loss. The Reds consistenly made the play or got the big hit they needed.
Game One: Reds 9, Cubs 8 (12 innings): Sonny Gray, rated as a superb bunter, successfully squeezed home the winning run as a pinch hitter in the 12th inning. Nick Senzel hit a three-run homer in the eighth to tie the game. Rick Monday and Yasiel Puig each had two-run homers.
Game Two: Reds 9, Cubs 8: Chicago led 5-0 after three innings and had knocked Gray out of the game. But the Reds scored at least one run in each of the final six innings, with solo homers from Puig and Eugenio Suarez, and led 9-6 going into the ninth. The Cubs rallied in the bottom of the ninth, with Billy Williams hitting a solo homer. With two on and two out, pinch hitter Pat Bourque doubled home Randy Hundley, but Sentzel gunned down Don Kessinger at the plate to end the game.
Game Three: Cubs 12, Reds 2: Chicago blasted Anthony DiSclafini for five runs in the first inning, and this time the Reds did not have a comeback rally in them. The Cubs had 16 hits, none of them homers.Burt Hooton went the distance for the win, allowing four hits.
Game Four: Reds 5, Cubs 4: Cincinnati rapped four homers (Senzel, Winker, Puig and Suarez). Reds closer Raisel Iglasias allowed singles to the first two men in the ninth, but then got a double play and a strikeout to pick up his third save of the series.
Game Five: Reds 3, Cubs 2: Jose Iglesias, an outstanding defensive shortstop but no power hitter, hit a three-run homer off Fergie Jenkins, and that was enough for Luis Castillo and the Cincy bullpen. Senzel again cut down Kessinger at the plate, this time on a fly ball. Raisel Iglesias fanned all three men he faced in the ninth for his fourth save.
Projected rotation: Gray-Castillo-DiScalfini-Rourke-(Gray)-(Castillo)-(DiScalfini). Rourke replaces Bauer as the fourth starter. The bullpen will be fully available for the start of the second round.
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