‘It’s never easy,’ say Cubs after making road to playoffs steeper with 10-inning loss to Reds

The Cubs have no immediate plans of making their chase of a playoff berth easy on themselves anytime soon.

Anybody who wasn’t sure of that before Wednesday night got hit with that same cold rush of reality the players did in a 3-2 loss to the also-ran Reds in 10 innings – eking out just one hit in six innings against a starting pitcher (Tyler Mahle) with a 5.11 ERA.

“It’s not ever easy,” said left-fielder Kyle Schwarber, who drove in a run with a sacrifice fly and later showed a brief flash of emotion after striking out to end the ninth as pitcher Amir Garrett celebrated. “They made it look easy in ’16. And ’17 was a grind, ’18 a grind, ’15 a grind. It’s never easy.”

The loss cost the Cubs a chance to break a tie with the Brewers for the National League’s final playoff spot and cost a game in the NL Central standings to the first-place Cardinals – who open a four-game series at Wrigley Field on Thursday with a three-game lead.

“We’ve still got plenty of opportunity,” said manager Joe Maddon, whose club faces the Cards in seven of the final 10 games. “We’ve got to take care of ourselves.”

An uphill climb much of the year for this four-time playoff group has only become steeper in recent days as they play without their closer, star first baseman and their top two shortstops.

After going to the bullpen eight times Wednesday, Maddon said there’s a “strong possibility” closer Craig Kimbrel (elbow) will be activated for Thursday’s game.

“We all know where we’re at. Tonight could have been a big step for us and we came up a little short,” said starter Jon Lester, who pitched into the sixth inning before being pulled at 77 pitches after putting the first two on in the sixth.

“But nobody in that clubhouse is naïve to what’s going on. We know what’s in front of us.”

In the meantime they’ll wear another lost series against the Reds — who beat the Cubs in 11 of 19 meetings this year to snap the Cubs’ streak of four straight winning seasons against Cincinnati.

The Cubs won just one series against the Reds out of six this season and split one.

“Their pitching staff is pretty darn good, and you can look at it that way,” said Lester, who allowed only one run on Eugenio Suarez’s 48th homer of the season in the fourth. “And you can look at it as they’re at the bottom of our division and we should beat them. But at the end of the day you’ve got to tip your hat to their rotation, and then you get to the back end of their bullpen and you’ve got some arms coming at you.”

Rookie James Norwood, the seventh reliever used Thursday, gave up a one-out single to Aristides Aquino and a stolen base, then walked Josh VanMeter on four pitches to set the stage for Jose Iglesias’ game-winning double in the top of the 10th.

Victor Caratini’s one-out double in the bottom of the 10th gave the Cubs a scoring chance, but Jason Heyward struck out, and Nico Hoerner lined to right to end the game.

Schwarber, who made a costly base-running mistake in the second when he was thrown out trying to advance to third with one out, exchanged words with reliever Amir Garrett after the pitcher celebrated striking out Schwarber to end the ninth and send the game to extra innings.

“I was frustrated, obviously. Got the best of me there,” Schwarber said. “Whatever it is … I’ve seen it too many times. Shouldn’t have reacted.”