Manager Craig Counsell bluntly assessed Busch\u2019s blunder.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was bad, that was a dumb play,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cIt was stupid. I\u2019ll take responsibility for it. It was a dumb play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Busch took responsibility for ending the game by getting thrown out.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust pretty inexcusable on my part,\u201d Busch said. \u201cJust got to get more, got to trust that that\u2019s there and then, yeah, just have to get more on my part. Got to make sure if I\u2019m taking that base that I make it 100%.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cubs (85-69) couldn\u2019t cash in on their ample run-scoring opportunities. They left nine runners on base and finished 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position.<\/p>\n
The bottom of the order provided plenty of traffic for the Cubs\u2019 best hitters. In the Nos. 5-9 spots, Happ, Nico Hoerner, Michael Conforto, Carson Kelly and Dansby Swanson combined for eight of the Cubs\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
![\"Cubs](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/CTC-Z-CUBS-REDS_ab33c3.jpg\")
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)<\/p>\n
Seiya Suzuki isn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had really good opportunities,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cWe had the right guys up. We just didn\u2019t get the hits tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Right-hander Clay Holmes\u2019 command issues didn\u2019t help the Cubs\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just couldn\u2019t finish the outing,\u201d Holmes said. \u201cIt comes down to you can\u2019t walk the leadoff guy there in the sixth inning. The walks hurt us. Really the past few outings I haven\u2019t been able to finish it and it\u2019s something I need to do. \u2026 Bearing down and making good pitches there at the end, it\u2019s something we\u2019ll work on and figure out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cubs, whose magic number to clinch a playoff berth dropped to three with the Arizona Diamondbacks\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery 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\u2019t look ahead,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cEverything 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CINCINNATI \u2014 For a Chicago Cubs team trying to secure the National League\u2019s top wild-card spot, there were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":808823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2400],"tags":[72,5,34,24,42882,535,50,4259,1712,576,36,37,111,4,98607,2305,33,40194,35,536,105],"class_list":["post-808822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cincinnati-reds","tag-alex-bregman","tag-baseball","tag-carson-kelly","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-chicago-cubs-magic-number","tag-cincinnati","tag-cincinnati-reds","tag-cincinnatireds","tag-clay-holmes","tag-craig-counsell","tag-ian-happ","tag-michael-busch","tag-michael-conforto","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-magic-numbers","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-nico-hoerner","tag-nl-wild-card-race","tag-pete-crow-armstrong","tag-reds","tag-seiya-suzuki"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117296561131273065","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}