The march to 100 wins rolled steadily along for the Cubs.
Led by Miguel Montero’s three hits and three RBIs, a three-game series sweep came without much difficulty as the Cubs claimed their 97th victory — 9-2 over the Reds on Wednesday night at Wrigley Field. Chicago is three shy of its first 100-win season since 1935 and has a magic number of 2 to clinch home-field advantage through the National League Championship Series.
“That’s a number I’ve never achieved on the win side,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said of the goal to reach 100. “I’ve achieved it on the loss side. Achieving that doesn’t feel good. That was my first year as a manager with the Devil Rays. We exceeded 100 that year.”
Cubs starter John Lackey pitched seven strong innings and gave up two earned runs on five hits and one walk with four strikeouts. After a one-out ground-rule double by Joey Votto in the third inning of a 2-2 game, Lackey retired his final 14 batters in a row.
“It definitely felt like I got better as the game went along,” Lackey said. “I kind of figured out how they were approaching the game and then made a nice adjustment. [Montero] called a great game and had a couple big hits for me. He was definitely huge for me tonight.”
Reds rookie starter Robert Stephenson lasted 3 2/3 innings while allowing four earned runs and eight hits with two walks and two strikeouts. The go-ahead run scored in the third inning on Montero’s two-out single to left field that scored Ben Zobrist, who reached on a one-out walk. In the fourth inning, Dexter Fowler hit a leadoff homer to right field off of Stephenson and Montero scored a fifth run in the fifth inning when a balk was called on reliever Michael Lorenzen, and then added a two-out, two-run single in the sixth to blow the game open.
The NL Central champion Cubs are 13-3 vs. the Reds this season, including 7-2 at home. Chicago’s 97 wins match its 2015 total. Cincinnati has dropped seven of its last eight games.
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