Chicago Cubs Score and Recap (8/30/26): Reds 7, Cubs 5 – Two PCA Home Runs Not Enough to Avoid Series Loss

The Cubs recent struggles continued on Sunday night when they dropped a third consecutive series, this time to the Reds. Two more home runs by MVP front-runner Pete Crow-Armstrong were not enough to overcome the four blasted by the road team in the loss.

For the second day in a row, PCA started the game in style with a solo home run off of Chase Burns in the bottom of the 1st. Chicago expanded the lead on an RBI single by Michael Conforto to make it 2-0 in the bottom of the 2nd.

Shōta Imanaga held his own through the first three innings, but then Héctor Rodríguez connected on a go-ahead three-run homer to give Cincinnati a 3-2 edge in the top of the 4th. The North Siders briefly evened the score in the bottom of the frame on a throwing error from Rodríguez that allowed Ian Happ to come home after he had tagged to third on a fly ball from Pedro Ramírez.

Imanaga got bitten by the home run bug two more times in the top of the 5th. Dane Myers had a solo dinger and Tyler Stephenson followed with a two-run blast to give Cincy a 6-3 advantage. Sal Stewart added another homer against Trent Thornton in the 7th to push the margin to 7-3.

The Cubs cut the deficit in half with a sacrifice fly by Nico Hoerner in the 8th and a second home run from Crow-Armstrong in the 9th, but that was it as the Reds were victorious 7-5. (Box score)

Key Moment

Cincinnati did all of their scoring with home runs, which is somehow becoming even more of an issue for Chicago, Imanaga specifically, in recent weeks.

Why the Cubs Lost

Unlike Saturday, they were unable to score enough to overcome the deficit created by the four home runs.

Stats That Matter

• Imanaga has now surrendered a whopping 33 round-trippers in 2026: 5 IP, 6 R, 8 H, 4 K, and 1 BB.
• PCA has an outside chance at 50 home runs the way he is going right now.
• Happ got on base three times with two hits and a walk.

Bottom Line

The Cubs are struggling right now, and it’s pretty much ended any realistic chance they had of winning the Central. They would have to be almost perfect against the Brewers the next 10 days to get close. They are still in good position to make the playoffs, but a couple more weeks of playing like this would put that into jeopardy.

On Deck

The best team in baseball comes in from Milwaukee to start a four-game series at Wrigley Monday night at 6:40pm CT. Clay Holmes goes up against Kyle Harrison in a contest available on Marquee with a radio feed on The Score.