![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Drew-Stubbs-reds.jpg\")
<\/a>Chicago has dropped a season-high seven games in a row, outscored by its opponents 44-20 over that span.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re just in a tough place right now,\u201d said Cubs pitcher Matt Garza.\u00a0 \u201cThere\u2019s still four months of baseball to play, so there\u2019s a lot of stuff to turn.\u201d\u00a0 This is the Cubs longest skid since dropping seven straight last July 27-Aug. 3.\u00a0 The club\u2019s offense is still managing to bat .269 as a team, which is second-best in the National League, but falls off to .234 with runners in scoring position.\u00a0 Chicago has dropped its last four games in Cincinnati and is 1-7 at the Great American Ball Park since May 8 of last season.\u00a0 Facing division opponents has been a nightmare for the squad, posting a 7-20 mark thus far in 2011.<\/p>\n
Cubs starting pitcher Doug Davis is 0-4 with a 5.95 ERA in four starts this season and is coming off a solid outing.\u00a0 The left-hander will be making just his second appearance on the road this season, entering with an 0-1 mark and 17.18 ERA, as opponents are batting .471 against him.\u00a0 Davis will be making his 17th career start against the Reds, posting a 6-3 record and 3.31 ERA, while owning a 4-2 mark and 3.12 ERA in nine outings at the Great American Ball Park.\u00a0 He is 15-14 with a 3.93 ERA in 45 lifetime appearances (44 starts) in June, which is his best career earned-run-average of any month.<\/p>\n
Cincinnati received a season-high four RBIs from outfielder Jonny Gomes to lead the club to a 8-2 victory in the first of a three-game series against Chicago.\u00a0 The win snapped a two-game losing streak for the Reds, who had won just five of their last 18 games before Monday.\u00a0 \u201cThat was an everything game,\u201d said Reds manager Dusty Baker.\u00a0 \u201cIt was a perfectly scripted game if you had to write it.\u201d\u00a0 Gomes three-run homer was his first since May 16 versus the Cubs.\u00a0 Cincinnati likely wants to host Chicago all season long, looking to gain its 17th victory in 20 meetings tonight.\u00a0 Facing division opponents has been a winning proposition for the squad, entering with a 23-13 mark this season and 118-77 over the last three years.<\/p>\n
Reds starting pitcher Edinson Volquez is 3-2 with a 6.35 ERA and returns to the Major League level after posting a 1-0 mark and 1.88 ERA in two minor league outings at Triple-A Louisville.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m hearing he\u2019s throwing the ball very well,\u201d Cincinnati manager Dusty Baker stated.\u00a0 \u201cHe made some adjustments and that\u2019s why he went down, to try to get himself back together.\u201d\u00a0 Volquez\u2019s biggest hurdle by far has been the first inning, as he\u2019s posted an ERA of 18 and an ERA of 3.51 in all other frames.\u00a0 In five career starts versus the Chicago Cubs, he is a perfect 3-0 with a 2.43 ERA, allowing just a single home run in 29 2\/3 frames.<\/p>\n
Bettors will likely back the Reds due to their 28-10 record versus left-handers at home, while the Cubs are 0-6 in their last six games against right-handed starters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds continue their three-game series between National League Central division rivals at the Great American Ball Park Chicago Cubs at Cincinnati Reds Chicago has dropped a season-high seven games in a row, outscored by its opponents 44-20 over that span.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re just in a tough place right now,\u201d said Cubs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":15557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[180,78,1491,2027,1040,1812,1781],"class_list":["post-16009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-cincinnati-reds","tag-doug-davis","tag-dusty-baker","tag-edinson-volquez","tag-great-american-ball-park","tag-nl-central"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16010,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16009\/revisions\/16010"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}