Reds starting pitcher Edinson Volquez is 2-1 with a 6.35 ERA in four starts this season, but is coming off a solid outing last time out.\u00a0 He picked up a 2-1 home victory over the first place Braves, giving up a single run and three hits over five innings of work.\u00a0 Cincinnati has provided the right-hander with 23 runs of support in 2010 thus far.\u00a0 He has made just one forgettable start away from the Great American Ball Park, giving up four runs and six hits over just 3.2 frames, but the Reds picked up a 12-4 win against the Brewers.\u00a0 In two daytime starts, Volquez is an even 1-1 with a 8.59 ERA, issuing nine walks and striking out 10 in 7.1 innings.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Chicago has lost eight of its last nine games and have scored two runs or fewer in five of its last nine games.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019d be nice to go out there and really play inspired baseball,\u201d outfielder Marlon Byrd said.\u00a0 \u201cBut when you\u2019re not winning and things aren\u2019t going your way, it\u2019s real tough.\u201d\u00a0 The offense has managed to hit .297 with 19 home runs in its last 11 home games since July 18.\u00a0 Chicago is 28-30 at home this season (-1,320) and the total is 26-29 O\/U in those games.\u00a0 At Wrigley Field, the club is averaging 4.5 runs per game and hitting for a combined .270 average, which is 12 points higher than their season mark.\u00a0 The Cubs are 4-3 after getting shutout this season (+80), while posting a dismal 29-42 mark against right-handed starters (-1,940).<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Cubs starting pitcher Randy Wells is 5-9 with a 4.40 ERA in 22 starts this season and is coming in on a two-game losing streak.\u00a0 In those contests, Chicago was outscored 26-2, with him allowing 10 runs (nine earned) and 15 hits over 9.2 innings.\u00a0 The right-hander has produced a 3-4 record and 4.20 ERA in 12 home starts this year.\u00a0 In five career outings versus the Reds, Wells is a perfect 3-0 with a 2.30 ERA, while issuing just eight walks in 31.1 frames.\u00a0 He brings a 4-4 record and 4.30 ERA into his 13th daytime start compared to a 1-5 mark and 4.50 ERA at night.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Bettors must be aware of the Reds 17-4 mark in Volquez\u2019s last 21 road starts despite this being only his fifth start of the season.\u00a0 Chicago is 4-1 in Wells\u2019 five career starts against one of their NL Central rivals.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Reds must remain focused on the task at hand, as they may look ahead to next week’s series against the Cardinals. Cincinnati Reds at Chicago Cubs Cincinnati has turned the tide against the Cubs this season, blanking them 3-0 at Wrigley Field on Friday afternoon.\u00a0 The Reds are now 8-3 against them this season, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":5038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[180,78,1040,1781,1563,1637],"class_list":["post-6155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-cincinnati-reds","tag-edinson-volquez","tag-nl-central","tag-randy-wells","tag-wrigley-field"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6155","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=6155"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6156,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6155\/revisions\/6156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/brandon-phillips-reds-291-150x150.jpg\")
Cincinnati has turned the tide against the Cubs this season, blanking them 3-0 at Wrigley Field on Friday afternoon.\u00a0 The Reds are now 8-3 against them this season, after tallying a disappointing 5-10 mark in 2009.\u00a0 At 62-48, the club is a season-high 14 games over .500 after winning five of their past six games, including a 4-1 mark on this road trip.\u00a0 The team must remain focused over the next two games and not look ahead to a three-game series against the Cardinals starting Monday.\u00a0 \u201cI can\u2019t put too much importance on St. Louis because they\u2019re not here yet,\u201d manager Dusty Baker said.\u00a0 \u201cYou have to win games now before we get there.\u201d\u00a0 The pitching staff has posted a 3.01 ERA since June 17, which is the second-best mark in the majors over that span, behind only the White Sox (2.87).\u00a0 Cincinnati is 20-18 in day games this season (-50) and the total is 11-22 O\/U in those contests.\u00a0 The Reds are also 3-4 this season (-170) and 11-14 the last three years after shutting out an opponent (-140).<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n