Mahle's home woes send Reds to series loss

CINCINNATI -- The difference between Reds starting pitcher Tyler Mahle's performances at Great American Ball Park and on the road this season was brought into stark view on Wednesday afternoon.

Mahle's home woes have often been more of a footnote to his 2021 campaign, but his latest outing doomed the Reds to a 7-1 loss against the Cubs. Chicago, which snapped a 12-game losing streak on Tuesday, won only its third series since June 14 -- with the previous two series wins both coming against Arizona.

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"We should have won this series, and it’s tough losing any series right now," Mahle said. "To kind of put ourselves in that spot really sucks. That’s all there is to it."

Cincinnati (65-57) entered the day trailing the Padres by 1 1/2 games for the second National League Wild Card spot.

The Cubs had a 5-0 lead through two innings as Mahle gave up five earned runs on eight hits and one walk over five frames. He struck out five but allowed two home runs.

In 12 starts at GABP this season, Mahle is 3-3 with a 6.00 ERA. Over his 13 away games, the right-hander is 7-1 with a 1.86 ERA.

"I know we’re deep into the season, but that stuff a lot of times is coincidental," Reds manager David Bell said. "A lot of times it evens itself out -- most times it does -- and I still believe that will happen. It’s not something he’s concerned with. I know we’re all aware of it, but I don’t think you can make a big deal out of that."

Mahle has also surrendered 17 home runs at home, vs. three on the road. With two outs in the first inning Wednesday, Ian Happ slugged a 3-1 fastball to right field for a solo homer. The Cubs' second inning opened with David Bote's leadoff walk before Mahle's 2-2 fastball was lifted to left field by Michael Hermosillo for a two-run homer.

Chicago added two more runs on three hits in the second-inning rally, including Rafael Ortega’s two-out RBI single and Frank Schwindel's RBI double to the wall in left-center field.

"Just came out flat and stuff was just rolling up there," Mahle said. "My splitter was rolling up there. Slider was the same thing. Fastball wasn’t getting it done. And then … I don’t know, the first two innings were just bad."

Mahle gave up two more hits to open the third inning, but he escaped the jam and spared the bullpen from a heavy load by getting through the fifth with only two more baserunners and no more runs.

"The last half of the game, stuff wasn’t necessarily great, but they were competitive pitches," Mahle said.

What Mahle couldn't explain was why he can be so effective on the road and much less so at home.

"If someone else knows, please let me know, but no, I don’t know," he said.

The series wasn't entirely won or lost because of Mahle, however. For the second straight game, Cincinnati’s offense was stymied and limited to one run.

That came courtesy of Tyler Naquin, who hit his career-high 15th homer of the season -- a solo drive to center field -- with two outs in the bottom of the second inning against Cubs starter Adrian Sampson.

"We play 162 of these things," Naquin said of the series loss. “It’s just two days.”

The Reds have won 10 of their 16 games this season against the Cubs, who endured a major roster purge ahead of the Trade Deadline. The division rival is in full rebuild mode.

"Every game takes our best. I separate both of these games, two totally different games," Bell said. "Last night, [Kyle] Hendricks was tough against us. Today, [Sampson] pitched a good game against us. He used his fastball inside, had movement inside. We just weren’t able to get any hits. We weren’t able to get anything going. He did a real nice job against the top of our order. That was really the story of the game right there. Then Tyler got off to a tough start."