Chicago Cubs: My favorite memory vs. every National League team

Chicago Cubs: Cincinnati Reds

I wish we had some Cubs-Reds division races to talk about, but in the time I’ve been following the team, there haven’t been any seasons in which both sides were really good. Therefore, coming up with a good Reds memory requires a little thinking. Here are some that came to mind:

• May 24, 2001: Jon Lieber, during his 20-win season, threw a one-hitter, facing the minimum 27 batters in a 3-0 Cubs win at Wrigley Field.
• April 4, 2003: Sammy Sosa hit his 500th career home run at Great American Ballpark off Scott Sullivan. The Cubs eventually lost the game.
• September 24, 2003: In a critical game down the stretch, Shawn Estes came through with a complete-game, four-hit shutout as the Cubs beat the Reds in Cincinnati, 8-0.
• April 16, 2004: Sammy Sosa and Moises Alou hit back-to-back home runs as the Cubs won, 11-10 at Wrigley Field.
• June 13-14, 2015: The Cubs earn back-to-back walk-off wins against the Reds at Wrigley Field, both on hits by Starlin Castro.
• April 21, 2016: Jake Arrieta threw a no-hitter as the Cubs beat the Reds, 16-0, in Cincinnati.
• June 27, 2016: Kris Bryant went 5-for-5 with three home runs and two doubles in an 11-8 Cubs win in Cincinnati. That was the first time in history that a batter accomplished that feat.

As we can see, it’s a lot more about individual performances than critical team wins. I’ll go with the Arrieta no-hitter since we don’t get to see no-hitters that often and Arrieta was in the middle of a dominant stretch. But don’t sleep on Lieber’s 2001 performance. In some ways, I think that performance was at least as impressive.