Baez and his teammates showed why he feels that

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As far as Javier Baez is concerned , no deficit is too big for the Chicago Cubs to overcome.


Baez homered and had four hits – including a game-tying infield single in the eighth – and the Cubs rallied from a five-run deficit for an 8-7 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.

Anthony Rizzo’s RBI groundout capped a four-run eighth inning for Chicago, which has come from behind in each of its last eight wins.

”That’s what we do,” Baez said. ”We fight to the end. We’ve been coming back since 2016.”

Eugenio Suarez homered and Billy Hamilton added three hits and three stolen bases for Cincinnati, which had its five-game winning streak against the Cubs snapped.

Randy Rosario (4-0) allowed two hits in 2 1/3 innings to get the win. Brandon Morrow worked the ninth for his 20th save.

The Reds took a 7-4 lead into the eighth, but reliever Amir Garrett – who retired three straight batters in the seventh – walked Victor Caratini and Addison Russell to start the inning. Pinch hitter David Bote then singled to load the bases.

Jared Hughes (2-3) replaced Garrett and Ben Zobrist greeted him with a two-run double to left-center to trim the deficit to 7-6. Baez followed with a comebacker, but Hughes bobbled the ball and then fell down as he picked it up. Baez was credited with an RBI infield hit as Bote scored for a tie at 7.

”It was right there; it hit my glove,” Hughes said. ”I think it was a hit, but still , I should have made the play.”

Rizzo then drove in Zobrist with a groundout to second base to put Chicago on top.

”Amir gave us a clean seventh inning, and the wheels fell off in the eighth,” Cincinnati manager Jim Riggleman said.

The five-run deficit was the largest the Cubs have overcome during the eight comeback wins.

”It’s fantastic,” Bote said of Chicago’s string of comebacks. ”The quality at-bats the last two weeks have been incredible.”

Suarez’s three-run blast in the third gave the Reds a 5-0 lead.

Chicago moved closer with a pair of runs in the fourth. Caratini drove in the first with a double and then scored on an RBI groundout by Russell.

Cincinnati reclaimed the five-run advantage with single runs in the fifth and sixth innings on RBI singles by Jesse Winker and Joey Votto.

The Cubs made it 7-3 in the bottom of the sixth as Rosario drove in a run with a single for his first major league hit and RBI.

Baez’s 17th homer leading off the seventh trimmed the deficit to three runs.

HARVEY SOLID

Reds starter Matt Harvey was in line to win his fourth straight start before the eighth-inning meltdown. The right-hander allowed three runs (two earned) in 5 2/3 innings. He has a 1.88 ERA over his last four starts. ”It’s a good sign that I can go out, not feel great, be out of whack and still get somewhat deep in the game and limit the damage,” Harvey said.

SUN FIELD

Harvey might have completed the sixth without giving up a third run had right fielder Scott Schebler not lost a pop fly by Russell in the sun with one out. It dropped in for a double. Rosario followed with a single to drive in Russell.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Cubs: OF Jason Heyward left the game after taking a foul ball to the groin in the third inning. 3B Kris Bryant (left shoulder inflammation) took batting practice, fielded grounders and ran the bases before the game. Manager Joe Maddon said Bryant will go on a rehab assignment before being activated , although the details haven’t been worked out yet.

UP NEXT

LHP Jon Lester (11-2, 2.25 ERA) looks to become the NL’s first 12-game winner on Sunday in the finale of the three-game series. Lester has won seven straight starts. RHP Luis Castillo (5-8, 5.53) pitches for the Reds.

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CINCINNATI (AP)Coach Marvin Lewis warned Bengals players that more changes are coming if they continue to lose, and the next job lost could be theirs. The Bengals fired offensive coordinator Ken Zampese a day after their 13-9 loss to the Texans on Thursday night. Quarterbacks coach Bill Lazor was promoted and will get his first chance to put his imprint on the offense for a game Sunday at Green Bay (1-1). Lewis said his message to the team this week is that it’s on them now to fix the problems. ”I told the players on Monday morning: This is not magic,” Lewis said Wednesday, the first time he’s been available to the media since the change. ”You have to do the work – offense, defense and special teams all alike. We all got Kenny out of here – not Kenny, we did. ”And they’ve got to understand that. They’re part of that. And the next time they look around , there will be different guys sitting there.” The Bengals (0-2) are the first team since the 1939 Eagles to open a season with a pair of home games and fail to score a touchdown. They have scored an NFL-low nine points this season. The previous team to score so few points in a pair of season-opening home games was the 1949 Packers. Lewis is in his 15th season with Cincinnati and is in the final year of his contract, leaving him vulnerable if things don’t turn around. Owner Mike Brown is reluctant to change coaches during a season. Firing Zampese went against the norm. Zampese was a focal point in his second season as coordinator. The offense never got into a flow, A.J. Green and Tyler Eifert would go long stretches without a pass thrown their way, and the play calling lacked the creativity shown under Zampese’s predecessor, Hue Jackson. After the loss to Houston, Green said they need to get the ball in their star players’ hands more often, even when they’re a focal point of the coverage. Lewis agreed, which was one factor in the change at coordinator. ”He plays a position where sometimes it’s a little harder (to get him the ball) , so we’ve got to be creative to provide opportunity to do that,” Lewis said. Lazor declined interviews after practice on Wednesday, saying he had a meeting to attend. One of his priorities will be getting Andy Dalton back into a flow. He was sacked five times during an opening 20-0 loss to the Ravens and three more times by the Texans, who had him on the run repeatedly. Dalton led the AFC with a passer rating of 106.3 in 2015. He slipped last season, when he was sacked 41 times. His passer rating after two games is 47.2, last in the NFL. Cleveland rookie DeShone Kizer is second-to-last at 55.6. Dalton said Lazor has done some things differently during practice. The test of how much they’ve changed will come Sunday when Lazor is running the show. ”You don’t know until you get into it and plays are actually being called,” Dalton said. Most of the changes will be in picking plays for certain situations rather than making wholesale changes to the playbook. ”You can’t come into this and completely change what we’ve been doing,” Dalton said ”You can’t change everything in just a couple days.” EIFERT MISSES PRACTICE Eifert wasn’t on the field for practice Wednesday , getting treatment for a sore back. He missed time last season with a bad back, and was stretching his lower back during the game on Thursday. SICK PLAYERS Offensive tackles Jake Fisher and Cedric Ogbuehi didn’t make it through the full practice because of illness. Rookie receiver John Ross got sick, too. Defensive tackle Geno Atkins was limited by a shoulder injury. Defensive end Michael Johnson was limited as he recovers from a concussion that sidelined him for the game against the Texans. —

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