It was a brutal night at Wrigley Field for the Cincinnati Reds, as a heartbreaking 3-2 extra-inning loss to the Chicago Cubs was compounded by a significant injury to their star closer.

The trouble started in the ninth inning when Emilio Pagán collapsed after delivering a single pitch, suffering a hamstring injury that will send him to the injured list. The veteran closer, who had been dealing with hamstring tightness in recent weeks, was carted off the field—a sight that left his teammates visibly shaken.

"It's a tough pill to swallow," said catcher Jose Trevino. "He's one of our leaders, one of our captains, and a guy who cares about this team more than most. It didn't look good, but we're going to be resilient about it. That's what EP would want."

Before the late-inning drama, the Reds had plenty of reasons for optimism. Starter Andrew Abbott delivered a standout performance, pitching 5 2/3 shutout innings with renewed confidence and a sharper fastball. It was exactly the kind of bounce-back outing the team needed, especially coming off a losing streak. Reliever Connor Phillips also stepped up, escaping a bases-loaded jam in the sixth to keep the Cubs off the board.

But the Reds' offense couldn't build on their slim lead, and the margin for error vanished in the eighth inning. Cubs first baseman Michael Busch crushed a game-tying home run off reliever Tony Santillan, who left a fastball over the heart of the plate. "I trust the process," Santillan said afterward. "Being the guy the team relies on to get the game to the closer—that comes with the territory."

With the game tied in the ninth, Pagán's injury forced rookie Jose Franco into emergency duty. The young pitcher, primarily a starter, delivered the biggest outing of his career by keeping the score level through a tense inning. But in the tenth, after the Reds failed to drive in the automatic runner, shortstop Elly De La Cruz mishandled a routine grounder up the middle, allowing the winning run to score.

For a team already navigating a tough stretch, the loss stings—but the bigger concern is Pagán's health and how the Reds will adjust without their closer. As Trevino put it, resilience is the only option now.