An improbable Cubs season comes down to three games at Wrigley Field, where starting pitchers Mark Prior, Matt Clement and Kerry Wood will hold the keys to the postseason.
The Cubs squandered an early lead Thursday night in a 9-7 loss to the Cincinnati Reds before 36,963 at Great American Ball Park and dropped back into a first-place tie with Houston as the Astros beat Milwaukee 6-1.
“Back to square one,” Cubs manager Dusty Baker said.
Sammy Sosa’s two home runs couldn’t offset a subpar outing by Carlos Zambrano or a bullpen implosion, setting up a do-or-die scenario at Wrigley.
Sean Casey’s two-run homer off Mark Guthrie handed the Reds an 8-4 lead. It was deja vu for Guthrie, who had served up a game-winning homer to Casey in a one-run loss on April 6 in Cincinnati.
Sosa’s two-run homer in the third gave him 537 to pass Mickey Mantle for 10th place on the all-time home-run list.
———-
Edited by Michael Kellams (mkellams@tribune.com) and Phil Thompson (plthompson@tribune.com)
