McCoy: Bauer’s gem lifts Reds past first-place Cubs

Trevor Bauer, a close friend to Darvish, was not impressed. Bauer said before the game that he didn’t have to be good against Darvish, he had to be excellent.

Bauer, who was 0-and-3 with a 4.07 earned run average over his previous four starts, was Excellent with a capital ‘E,’ three hits over 7 2/3 innings as the Reds recorded a 3-0 victory over Darvish’s Chicago Cubs.

All three Reds runs came in the first inning on two walks and a Mike Moustakas home run.

The Cubs didn’t have a hit until Victor Caratini led the fifth with a single. He was immediately doubled off first base when Jason Heyward hit a line drive to Joey Votto.

Bauer was picture-perfect, or pitcher-perfect in completely dominating the Cubs —  no runs, one hit through seven innings.

But when he gave up a pair of singles to Heyward and Ildemaro Vargas in the eighth, Lucas Sims was brought in to face Ian Happ. Sims threw one pitch — a line drive out to second base.

“I felt OK, normal,” said Bauer of his beauteous performance. "I had an adrenaline jump like in the fourth inning (hit batsman, then three straight strikeouts) and that gave me some extra energy. But at the end I was tired. It was the first time this year I pitched into the eighth.

“I had a good game plan tonight,” he added. “My fastball velocity was a little bit better than it has been. I was able to get after it and locate pretty well.”

Despite Sims throwing only one pitch in the eigth, much-troubled Raisel Iglesias was sent to the mound for the ninth. This time he whisked through the two-three-four hitters on 10 pitches to lock down the shutout.

It was the first time this year the Cubs have been held scoreess.

The Cubs spent the night hitting weak ground balls or shallow pop-ups, when they weren’t striking out, 10 strikeouts.

Bauer didn’t walk anybody and hit one batter. The only Cub to touch second base through seven innings was Kyle Schwarber when second baseman Freddy Galvis dropped a pop-up.

Bauer, extremely demonstrative as he put down the Cubs one-by-one-by-one, said he knew he had to be special against Darvish.

“Mainly it was the match-up, right?” he said. "Going against Darvish, runs are so critical. When Moose comes out and puts us up 3-0, it was like, 'OK, I can make those stand up. The goal then was, don’t let them score three runs.

“That really helped lock me in, breaking on top is always huge. If you can get an early lead, it allows me to be more aggressive,” he said. “That was the big part of the game. . .Moose comes up with a big three-run homer.”

The Reds? They mustered only two hits over six innings against Darvish, but one was the first-inning home run by Moustakas. It came after Darvish walked two batters in front of Moustakas.

The Reds produced only one hit with the first five batters in the first inning, but that hit produced three runs.

Darvish had walked only eight batters all year, but after he retired Joey Votto he walked both Nick Castellanos and Jesse Winker, the first time all season he walked two batters in one inning.

And Moustakas made Darvish pay a heavy price. Moustakas, a former Cub, launched one into the right-field bleachers, a three-run home run and in the wink of Darvish’s eye the Reds were on top, 3-0.

That was it against Darvish. He gave up a two-out single to Shogo Akiyama in the first, then didn’t give up a run or a hit for the next five innings and struck out nine.

For the game, the Reds had only four hits, two by Akiyama. Eugenio Suarez struck out four times and Joey Votto went 0 for 4. He is hitting .075 on the road (5 for 66) with no homers and no RBI. Winker was 0 for 3 and is 1 for 21 since serving a one-game suspension.

This one, though, was won with one swing of the bat by Moustakas and the golden right arm of Bauer.