Reds Bomb Four HRs in Fifth, Sink Imanaga in 7-5 Win

Cincinnati hit four home runs between the fourth and fifth innings to turn a 3-2 deficit into a 6-3 lead, and Chicago never fully recovered. Pete Crow-Armstrong went deep twice — including a 431-foot shot in the ninth — but the Cubs fell 7-5.

Shota Imanaga was in trouble from the jump. Crow-Armstrong led off the game with a 417-foot shot to right center, and a Conforto RBI single in the second pushed the Cubs to 2-0. Imanaga needed a big fourth inning and got the opposite. Hector Rodriguez crushed a 387-foot, three-run homer to right — scoring Suárez and McLain — flipping the lead to Cincinnati 3-2. The win probability swung from 81% to 50% on that single swing. Chicago answered immediately when Happ scored on a throwing error by right fielder Rodríguez, knotting it at 3-3, but that would be the last good news of the night for the Cubs. Imanaga finished with a line of 5.0 IP, 8 H, 6 ER, 1 BB, and 4 K — a rough outing that the Reds exploited thoroughly.

The fifth inning was where this game was decided. Dane Myers led off with a solo shot to left center (384 feet), then Tyler Stephenson followed with a two-run homer to left (394 feet), scoring De La Cruz. Just like that, Cincinnati had turned a tied game into a 6-3 advantage, and the Cubs' dugout had to be wondering what hit them. Two home runs in the same inning, back-to-back, against a rotation piece Chicago counts on — that's the story of the night. Sal Stewart added a 418-foot solo shot to center in the seventh to make it 7-3, and at that point the margin looked insurmountable. Chase Burns, for his part, did his job: 5.2 innings, 6 hits, 2 earned runs, 7 strikeouts — a quality start that gave Cincinnati's bullpen a manageable situation to close out.

Chicago made it interesting late, which appears to be the only silver lining worth noting. Hoerner's sacrifice fly in the eighth scored Bregman, and then Crow-Armstrong — who had already gone deep in the first — launched a 431-foot bomb to right center in the ninth to cut it to 7-5. Crow-Armstrong finished 2-for-5 with 2 HR, 2 RBI, and 2 runs scored, and Caleb Thielbar threw a clean inning with three strikeouts in relief. But Cincinnati's four-homer barrage in the middle innings was simply too much to overcome. The Reds got contributions from four different players going deep — Rodriguez, Myers, Stephenson, and Stewart — which looks like exactly the kind of balanced offensive performance that makes this lineup dangerous. Final: CIN 7, CHC 5.