When the Cubs arrived in Cincinnati they were buried under an 11-game losing streak. And the Reds crushed them Monday, 14-5, extending that skid to 12 straight.
Then the Reds lost Tuesday, 2-1, but they faced Kyle Hendricks, an excellent pitcher.
The Cubs, though, were desperate for a starting pitcher for Wednesday and reached down to Triple-A to call up journeyman Adrian Sampson.
Sampson, rescued from the Korean Baseball Organization earlier this year with a minor league contract, brought a 4.92 earned run average from Des Moines.
And in a game Aug. 4 against Indianapolis, Sampson pitched five innings and gave up seven runs, 10 hits four home runs and hit three batters.
To the Reds, though, Sampson was an unsolvable mystery — four innings, one run, five hits, no walks, two strikeouts.
The Reds scored a run Tuesday on a Nick Castellanos solo home run. On Wednesday, the offense consisted of a solo home run by Tyler Naquin.
Meanwhile, the Cubs emerged from hibernation to beat up on Reds starter Tyler Mahle.
For the second straight day, University of Cincinnati product Ian Happ homered, this time with two outs in the first.
The Cubs erupted for four runs in the second, an inning that began with Mahle walking David Bote on a full count and a 441-foot upper deck home run to left by Michael Hermosillo. It was his second at bat since his call-up from Iowa.
Rafael Ortega singled home a run and Frank Schwindel doubled him home, giving Schwindel an extra base hit in seven straight games with RBIs in six straight games.
Mahle was torched for five runs, eight hits and two home runs in five innings, all the damage in the first two.
“I just came out flat and my splitter was just rolling up there, the slider was the same thing and the fastball wasn’t getting it done,” said Mahle. “The first two innings were just bad. I came out trying to feel my way into the game like I usually do and it just didn’t work out.”
For Mahle, Great American Ball Park is not home, sweet home. While he is 7-1 on the road, he is 3-3 at GABP. He has given up 20 home runs, 17 at home.
Why?
“I don’t know,” he said. “If someone else knows, please let me know because I don’t know.”
Most of the damage against Mahle (10-4, 3.78) came when he had two strikes on hitters.
“What I was throwing up there, I wasn’t going to strike anybody out with any of those pitches, much less get guys out,” he said. “My stuff just wasn’t sharp in the first couple of innings.”
Said manager David Bell, “Mahle was able to get to two strikes a lot and their hitters did a nice job with two strikes to fight off pitches, then hit home runs.”
Naquin’s home run came in the second with two outs and the Reds already down, 5-0.
It was his career-best 15th home run and extended his career-best hitting streak to eight games.
“I plan on hitting a lot more,” he said. “But 15 is cool.”
Of losing two straight to the Cubs, Naquin said, “It’s just two games out of 162, just two games. They were getting hits when it counted. Just one of those days, man, one of those days.”
The Cubs scored their sixth run in the sixth when Sergio Alcantara said hello to relief pitcher Jeff Hoffman with Chicago’s third home run on the game.
They added a seventh run in the ninth when Justin Wilson walked the first two hitters and one scored on Matt Duffy’s two-out bunt past pitcher Wilson.
The Reds mustered only six hits, only one after the fourth inning, a two-out double by Jose Barrero in the ninth. They were 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position and stranded seven runners. Five of the last six Reds outs came on strikeouts in one of their most hum-drum performances of the season.
“Sampson pitched a good game, used his fastball with movement inside,” said Bell of the Cubs starter. “We just weren’t able to get any hits, get anything going. He did a good job against the top of our order and that was the story of the game.”
The top five — Jonathan India, Joey Votto, Castellanos, Mike Moustakas and Aristides Aquino — went a combined 1 for 19. The only hit was a ground rule double by Votto.
THURSDAY’S GAME
Marlins at Reds, 7:10 p.m., Bally Sports Ohio, 700, 1410
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