Cubs 7, Reds 4: Ian Happ continues his Cincinnati dominance

The Cubs have begun hitting for power over the last few games, and it’s starting to pay off with wins.

Patrick Wisdom homered in his fourth straight game and Ian Happ added a three-run shot that provided the margin of victory in a 7-4 Cubs win over the Reds Monday evening in Cincinnati.

The game started scoreless over the first three innings, but the Cubs were hitting fly balls that just barely missed going out of the yard, like this one, caught by Nick Senzel off Happ in the second inning [VIDEO].

In the fourth, Happ got revenge, of sorts. Seiya Suzuki led off with a double and Happ doubled him in [VIDEO].

Two outs later, Alfonso Rivas singled and Wisdom followed with a three-run homer [VIDEO].

It’s 4-0 and Drew Smyly is cruising. He ran out of gas in the sixth, where he served up a solo homer to Tommy Pham and then hit Joey Votto. One out later — and one out away from getting out of the inning — Aristides Aquino smacked a two-run homer to bring the Reds to within 4-3.

Aquino has been up and down to the minor leagues since his splashy debut in 2019, but he has absolutely worn out Cubs pitching: .300/.377/.783 with nine home runs in 60 at-bats. He hasn’t hit more than four homers against any other team.

The Cubs didn’t waste any time getting those three runs back. Christopher Morel led off the seventh with a single and two outs later, Suzuki walked.

After the walk, the Reds called on Luis Cessa in relief. Happ sent Cessa’s first pitch deep into the Cincinnati night [VIDEO].

That was a towering drive. Look at the launch angle!

That was Happ’s 23rd home run against the Reds, by far his most against any team, and his 14th at GABP. He hasn’t hit more than seven in any other road park.

The Cubs bullpen, a bit shaky over the weekend, returned to being lockdown. Daniel Norris, Scott Effross, Chris Martin and David Robertson combined for 3⅓ innings of one-run ball, allowing one hit and two walks and striking out five. Robertson posted his eighth save. Here’s the final out [VIDEO].

Okay, so that wasn’t a strike, but... we’ll take it. Here are David Ross’ postgame comments [VIDEO].

The “crowd” at GABP looked vanishingly small. It was announced as 12,029, but looked like there were maybe 3,000 in the seats, many of them Cubs fans.

Wins are wins and while Wisdom, Happ and others are hot hitters... why not win some more? Wisdom’s 10 home runs now have him one off the NL lead which is shared by Pete Alonso, C.J. Cron and Christian Walker.

The Cubs will go for two in a row over the Reds and three straight overall Tuesday evening in Cincinnati. Marcus Stroman will start for the Cubs and Tyler Mahle gets the call for the Reds. TV coverage is via Marquee Sports Network and game time is 5:40 p.m. CT.