Cubs Bludgeon Abbott, Turn Wrigley Into Batting Practice in 17-5 Rout

So much for ERA parity and competitive one-run baseball. The Cubs torched Andrew Abbott and turned Wednesday afternoon into a 17-5 laugher, leaving our Reds +1.5 call face-down in the Wrigley dirt. We projected Abbott's 4.15 ERA as "average-to-below-average" — turns out that was generous. Chicago's lineup, which we acknowledged had pop at the top with Suzuki and Crow-Armstrong, didn't just nibble around the edges. They feasted. Seventeen runs is batting practice with a box score attached, and when you're counting on run-suppression parity to keep things tight, you can't survive your starter getting shelled like that.

The Reds' bats — De La Cruz, Stewart, Bleday — showed up just enough to score five, but it's hard to cover a spread when you're getting boat-raced by a dozen. Kevin Gausman wasn't brilliant, but he didn't need to be. Chicago's offense did the heavy lifting, and our thesis that neither bullpen nor lineup had meaningful separation got torched the moment Abbott couldn't retire the side.

Lesson learned: when you're banking on mediocrity keeping things close, you better hope mediocrity actually shows up. Instead, we got a blowout, and the Cubs cashed tickets while we ate the miss. Onto the next.