Bregman making good on offseason signing with upwards trend

CINCINNATI – A lot was expected from Alex Bregman when he signed with the Cubs this past offseason for five years and $175 million.

By his own admission, the first half of the season has not been what he envisioned. Entering Saturday, Bregman was batting .235 with seven homers and 35 RBIs.

But the signs are there that he’s starting to warm up, including big hits in big moments. Bregman delivered one of those on Saturday night as the Cubs assured themselves of being at least 10 games over .500 heading into the All-Star break.

Carson Kelly homered in the sixth and then Bregman broke a 3-3 tie with a two-run homer in the seventh to power the Cubs past the Reds, 5-3, on Saturday night before 34,199 at Great American Ball Park. It was Chicago’s 26th comeback win, tied with Milwaukee for the fourth most in MLB this season.

“I feel like it's guys just stepping up, having each other's back, and obviously next man up mentality,” Bregman said of Chicago’s resilience during an onslaught of injuries in the first half. “We've had a lot of guys go down. I feel like our whole rotation's been on the IL this year, pretty much besides Shota [Imanaga].”

Heading into his at-bat in the seventh against Cincinnati reliever Julian Garcia (0-2), Bregman was 2-for-18 on the road trip. His eighth homer (first since June 30) came on an 82 mph sweeper, landing in the hands of a fan in the first row of seats down the left-field line.

“Honestly, the game in Baltimore was probably the best I felt,” Bregman said of the games this week against the Orioles. “I went 0-for-4 [but with] four balls on the barrel, really hard in the air. Homer robbed, lined out the third. Another one to center field that was driven … last few weeks, I felt good. Yeah, I’ve been working on a lot of things, so super, super excited for the rest of the season.”

So too are his teammates.

“Honestly, I think like the last couple weeks, last few weeks, his zone awareness … I don't think that's ever wavered throughout the whole season,” said Michael Busch, who led the Cubs with three hits Saturday. “But I think he's had some really good games for us the last few weeks, and then obviously had a huge hit for us tonight.”

The Cubs were able to overcome three solo homers from the Reds to post their fifth win in six meetings with Cincinnati this season.

Nathaniel Lowe and Eugenio Suárez went back-to-back in the fourth to give Cincinnati a 2-0 lead. JJ Bleday added his 16th in the sixth for the Reds, who fell to 3-5 on their season-long nine-game homestand.

Drew Pomeranz (2-0) allowed the game-tying home run to Bleday to open the sixth, but the lefty finished the inning to earn the win. Caleb Thielbar pitched a scoreless seventh and Jacob Webb pitched the eighth, before Ryan Rolison started the ninth but left with runners on first and third and two outs. Trent Thornton came on to retire Sal Stewart for the final out and his third save in as many chances.

“I'm not going to complain at all,” Thornton said. “As long as we're getting the job done and winning games, that's all that matters at the end of the day. There's a lot of guys in this bullpen with saves this year. So pretty cool.”

“I think the story of the game was our bullpen and our pitching,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “We got four innings of one-run baseball from the bullpen, and they did a really nice job tonight.”

Like Imanaga on Friday night, Chicago starter Javier Assad danced around trouble in the first three innings, working out of a first-and-third, no-out jam in the first, and a first-and-second situation with none out in the third -- without yielding a single tally.

The Cubs also had their chances early, but Cincinnati starter Nick Lodolo worked out of trouble.

Finally, the Cubs broke through in the fifth with a two-out RBI single from Seiya Suzuki, scoring Miguel Amaya. Lodolo left a 92 mph sinker up to Kelly, who crushed it 410 feet to center, tying the game at 2-2. Moments later, the Cincinnati lefty left the game with a blister on his left index finger.