Reds Defeat Cubs Again, Ike Davis Acquired by Pirates

The Cincinnati Reds (7-9) entered Wrigley Field’s Friendly Confines with history on their side Friday and they didn’t disappoint. In a 4-1 win, the Reds have now grabbed a 16th win out of their last 17 visits to the Cubs‘ (4-11) home field.

Making his third start after performing as a reliever in 99 appearances, Alfred Simon (2-1) gave up one unearned run in six-plus innings of work. He had three strikeouts and and two walks; his ERA fell to 0.86 and the Cubs endured their fifth consecutive loss.

Alfred Simon

Contributing to the win was Jonathan Broxton as he pitched a  no-hitter ninth inning. This represented his second save over two attempts. The Reds now have a three-game win streak–a season best–and have won four of their last five games.

Reds manager Bryan Price said of the game, “Believe me, we don’t take it for granted that we’re coming in here to win all the games. I mean, we want to but we don’t take it for granted at all.”

This comment comes after the Reds won last season’s series, 14-5.

In addition to Friday’s victory, the Reds saw one of their players go down. Second baseman Brandon Phillips left the game in the third inning thanks to back spasms. He’ll be re-evaluated on Saturday by the team.

For the Cubs, Jeff Samardzija (0-2, 1.29 ERA) took the mound for seven innings and allowed three runs (one earned), six hits, seven strikeouts and two walks. The pitcher sits at 0-4 with a 3.86 ERA over 10 starts. His last win came on Aug. 24 against the San Diego Padres.

Perhaps the one bright spot for the Cubs came in the seventh inning as Luis Valbuena nailed a RBI single, snapping a Cubs 24-inning scoreless streak from last Sunday’s St. Louis Cardinals loss.

On Saturday, the three-game series will continue with Edwin Jackson (0-1, 6.19 ERA) on the mound for the Cubs and Tony Cingrani (1-1, 2.60 ERA) for the Reds.

Cincinnati gets another win (-132) and sits at 25/1 to win the 2014 World Series while the Cubs are 100/1 to do so.

Ike Davis to the Pirates

On Friday, the New York Mets traded first baseman Ike Davis to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

In return, the Mets got righty pitcher Zack Thornton and another player to be named at a later date. Thornton, 25, was in Triple-A Indianapolis last season and gained a 3.91 ERA over 25 1/3 innings, with 31 strikeouts and four walks, reported NBC Sports. At the start of 2014, over 7 1/3 innings, Thornton has a 1.23 ERA, eight strikeouts and a walk.

So what are the Pirates getting with Davis?

Ike Davis

Maybe not much. For this season, Davis, 27, is 5-for-24 (.208) with a single home run. He also hassix walks and four strikeouts. He was not the Mets’ starting first baseman as Lucas Duda has the honor with Davis sitting on the bench since early in the season.

Davis will be paired with the Pirates other first baseman, left Gaby Sanchez. Against lefties as a career hitter, Sanchez’s stat line reads .300/.399/.501 Davis against righties has a career .256/.357/.471 line.

For this season, Davis has a $3.5 million payday and will stay under team’s control through 2016 as an arbitration-eligible player.

This weekend, the Pirates (8-9) are playing a four-game series against the Milwaukee Brewers (12-5). On Friday, they lost 5-3 after winning the first game on Thursday, 11-2.

On Saturday, Matt Garza (0-2, 3.43 ERA) will take the mound for the Brewers and will seek his first win for the season.  For the Pirates,  Wandy Rodriguez (0-2, 7.31), will pitch who is looking for his first victory as well. He is going up against the Brewers for a first time since getting his last win–back on May 26.

In that 5-4 win, he gave up three runs over five innings.

On Saturday, Milwaukee will get the win (-104, 7.5 o/u).