Abbott Deals as the Reds End the Cubs Streak

Tony Crumpton · Senior Editor · Friday, May 30 2025

By Dustin Riese

CHICAGO - The Cincinnati Reds (29-29) came into Wrigley Field on Friday and accomplished something no team had been able to achieve this season. They found a way to beat the Chicago Cubs (35-22) to open the series, as this was the first time the Cubs lost the first game of a home series this season.

Behind a fabulous starting pitching performance from Andrew Abbott and an offense that erupted for three homers off Colin Rea, it was the Reds getting back to the .500 mark and ending the Cubs four-game winning streak 6-2. When you consider how good the Reds' pitching has been this season, especially Abbott's, it's hard to believe that this is a .500 team.

A lot of that has to do with a struggling bullpen, but the Reds offense has also struggled to generate runs consistently. Lately, their offense has started to show signs of life, which the Cubs found out firsthand last weekend, and it continued today as they used a trio of two-run innings to get the job done.

You knew at some point that Rea would start to regress on the mound, as his start to the season wasn't going to be sustainable. Apparently, the Reds are the one team that has his number as he has struggled in both outings against them, lasting 5 2/3 innings and allowing six earned runs on Friday. That included a two-run first inning that put the Reds in front for good as they led wire to wire in this one.

TJ Friedl opened the game with a bang as he connected for the first of three homers on the afternoon as Cincinnati was in front 1-0. Two batters later,, it was Elly De La Cruz keeping things rolling, as his double set the Reds' offense up once again,, which led to a Gavin Lux single to put the Reds in front 2-0.

Trailing by two runs isn't typically a problem for the Cubs, as they have the best offense in baseball for a reason. However, on this day, it was the Abbott show, as he completely dominated the Cubs. The southpaw not only tossed seven shutout innings, but he did so by walking one and striking out eight as the Cubs had no answers for him. Abbott also allowed just one hit, which came on a third-inning Justin Turner single in what was otherwise a quiet night for the Cubs and their offense.

Despite the rough first inning for Rea, the right-hander began to settle in, only to have the long ball come back to bite him not once but two more times. The first of those came in the fourth inning, as a Will Benson single was followed by a Tyler Stephenson home run, and just like that, this was a 4-0 game. That homer would prove to be the game-winning hit, but given the ability of this Cubs offense to battle back, no lead is ever safe with this team.

The bottom third of the Reds order continued to give Rea fits in the sixth as Benson was in the middle of it once again with a leadoff single. Two batters later, it was time for Jake Fraley to leave the building as his two-run shot capped off the scoring for the Reds and put the Cubs in a massive 6-0 hole. Rea would face one more hitter before yielding to Genesis Cabrera and the Cubs pen, as Chicago had plenty of work to do.

Even down six this late in the game, you never felt like the Cubs were out of it as their bullpen continued to impress and tossed 3 1/3 scoreless innings. That lowered their ERA to 0.78 since May 9, which is by far the best mark in Major League Baseball. Despite Abbott dominating the Cubs through seven innings, his day finally came to an end as Terry Francona went to his pen and called on Tony Santillian, who was roughed up by the Cubs last week in Cincinnati.

That shouldn't surprise anyone as the Cubs have pounded bullpens over their last 10 games and entered Friday outscoring their opponents 56-4 over their last 10 from the seventh inning on. That trend continued in this one as a one-out double from Nico Hoerner gave the Cubs a runner in scoring position and shot some life into what was otherwise a lifeless ballpark.

A Michael Busch triple followed up his single to get the Cubs on the board, while a Matt Shaw single made this a 6-2 game. Santillian continued to struggle as he walked Ian Happ to put two runners on and put a sense of Deja Vu in the mind of the Reds manager as Graham Ashcraft was called on to relieve Santillian and got Kyle Tucker to ground into an inning-ending double play.

The Cubs continued to make things interesting in the ninth, and it all started with a leadoff double from Seiya Suzuki as they had another runner in scoring position. Two batters later, Pete Crow-Armstrong took his turn keeping the line moving as he delivered a bloop double to put a pair of runners in scoring position.

That was as close as the Cubs would get as Emilio Pagan entered the game in place of Ashcraft and proceeded to retire both Dansby Swanson and Hoerner to pick up the save and gave the Reds a massive win. Five of the Cubs six hits came off the Reds pen as they are hoping to use that momentum on Saturday. Chicago will look to even things up tomorrow as Ben Brown will make his second consecutive start against Nick Lodolo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7bsKGxlS-w