CINCINNATI — For a Chicago Cubs team trying to secure the National League’s top wild-card spot, there were ample moments Friday night at Great American Ball Park they might dwell on as missed opportunities.
The miscues and lack of execution affected all phases of the game during their 6-4 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. Among the most egregious came in the top of the ninth as the Cubs attempted to rally. Michael Busch’s one-out walk brought the tying run to the plate in Alex Bregman, who barreled a ball to the deepest part of the park for a 383-foot flyout. Ian Happ, having homered earlier in the game, smoked Reds closer Emilio Pagán’s first-pitch fastball 107.9 mph off the bat just foul near the right-field pole.
Busch ran on the pitch with the Reds not holding him on first base. When Busch went again on the ensuing pitch, catcher Jose Trevino signaled to Pagán for a pitchout into the right-handed batter’s box and delivered an on-target throw to second. Although Busch originally was called safe, a crew-chief review overturned the call on replay to end the game.
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Manager Craig Counsell bluntly assessed Busch’s blunder.
“That was bad, that was a dumb play,” Counsell said. “It was stupid. I’ll take responsibility for it. It was a dumb play.”
Busch took responsibility for ending the game by getting thrown out.
“Just pretty inexcusable on my part,” Busch said. “Just got to get more, got to trust that that’s there and then, yeah, just have to get more on my part. Got to make sure if I’m taking that base that I make it 100%.”
The Cubs (85-69) couldn’t cash in on their ample run-scoring opportunities. They left nine runners on base and finished 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
The bottom of the order provided plenty of traffic for the Cubs’ best hitters. In the Nos. 5-9 spots, Happ, Nico Hoerner, Michael Conforto, Carson Kelly and Dansby Swanson combined for eight of the Cubs’ nine hits and also had two walks and a hit by pitch. Swanson, in his first game back from an oblique strain that cost him one month, finished 1-for-3 with a walk and run scored.
Pete Crow-Armstrong had one of his worst offensive games of the year, finishing 0-for-5 with three strikeouts and had nine total runners on base for those at-bats. Bregman also was hitless in five at-bats.
Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong strikes out swinging against Reds pitcher Tejay Antone in the eighth inning at Great American Ball Park on Sept. 18, 2026, in Cincinnati. Crow-Armstrong went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts in the Cubs’ 6-4 loss. (Tanner Pearson/Getty)
Seiya Suzuki isn’t fully out of his offensive funk. Entering the game with a .157 average and .563 OPS in September, he connected for a go-ahead two-run single in the fourth but also struck out three times, including with the bases loaded in the second against Reds starter Chase Burns.
“We had really good opportunities,” Counsell said. “We had the right guys up. We just didn’t get the hits tonight.”
Right-hander Clay Holmes’ command issues didn’t help the Cubs’ efforts either. He walked five batters in 5 1/3 innings and surrendered six runs on three hits. Holmes also committed a throwing error in the sixth on a pickoff move in an overall disastrous three-run inning that put the Reds ahead for good.
“I just couldn’t finish the outing,” Holmes said. “It comes down to you can’t walk the leadoff guy there in the sixth inning. The walks hurt us. Really the past few outings I haven’t been able to finish it and it’s something I need to do. … Bearing down and making good pitches there at the end, it’s something we’ll work on and figure out.”
The Cubs, whose magic number to clinch a playoff berth dropped to three with the Arizona Diamondbacks’ loss later Friday, have eight games remaining to try to build some momentum for the playoffs. They were helped by the Philadelphia Phillies also losing, but the San Diego Padres won, meaning the three teams are in a tie atop the wild-card standings.
“Every team wants to feel strong and win going into the playoffs, and I think what this group really does well is every day is a new day, we don’t look ahead,” Kelly said. “Everything feels magnified, but you can look back at games in April, right? I think every single game matters, and this is what makes this team really good is we can go on stretches where you do some pretty incredible things. But that starts with handling every single day as it is.”