Votto providing spark for Cincinnati

Cincinnati Reds (63-85, fifth in NL Central) vs. Chicago Cubs (86-61, first in NL Central)

Chicago; Saturday, 4:05 p.m. Eastern

PROBABLE PITCHERS: Reds: Cody Reed (0-2, 5.08 ERA, 1.52 WHIP, 24 strikeouts) Cubs: Jon Lester (15-6, 3.57 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, 133 strikeouts)

BOTTOM LINE: Cincinnati has enjoyed an offensive surge from Joey Votto as of late. He’s batting .333 with six hits and three home runs in the past week. The Cubs come into the matchup with a one and a half-game lead over the Brewers in the NL Central. Chicago is hitting a collective .261 this season, led by Ben Zobrist’s mark of .315. The Reds have gone 23-45 against the rest of their division. Cincinnati holds a team on-base percentage of .334 for the year, Joey Votto paces the lineup with a .420 OBP. The Cubs won Friday’s contest 3-2. Dillon Maples picked up his first win of the season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Eugenio Suarez is batting .290 with a .367 on-base percentage and .544 slugging percentage in 129 games this season for the Reds. Jose Peraza has three home runs and nine RBIs while slugging .683 over his past 10 games for Cincinnati. Javier Baez leads the Cubs with 161 hits on the season. He’s batting .295 on the year. Victor Caratini has a .333 batting average, eight hits and seven RBIs over his past 10 games for Chicago.

LAST 10 GAMES: Reds: 4-6, .267 batting average, 4.70 ERA, outscored by one run. Cubs: 5-5, .228 batting average, 4.15 ERA, outscored by 14 runs.

___

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by HERO Sports, and data from Sportradar.