CHICAGO — In the top of the second inning on Thursday, Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Kyle Hendricks served up a hanging curveball right down the middle to Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto.
Throughout Votto’s career, he has hit better against Hendricks than almost any other pitcher. Votto almost always crushes those mistakes for extra-base hits. But Votto’s barrel only clipped the bottom part of the baseball, and he hit a weak pop fly to center field.
It started one of the most frustrating innings of the entire Reds season.
On Thursday, the fourth-place Cubs beat the last-place Reds, 15-7, at Wrigley Field to take the series win.