It was unheard of not that long ago Craig Anderson Jersey , but now it has become somewhat commonplace: pitchers by committee.

A manager begins a game not with a starting pitcher but a reliever — and with more relievers to follow.

Cubs manager Joe Maddon, certainly not a stranger to taking a risk, tried it Saturday with poor results against a suddenly hot team that’s not playing like a last-place club.

Don’t look for him to make the same mistake Sunday.

Maddon will run out one of his regular starters, right-hander Tyler Chatwood (3-5), at Great American Ball Park to try to avoid a four-game sweep by the Cincinnati Reds, who are playing nothing like the tail-ending team they’ve been all season.

The Reds mounted their second six-game win streak of the year — the first time they’ve done that since 2012 — by making quick work of the Cubs’ starter-by-committee plans Saturday during an 11-2 victory keyed by the pitching of right-hander Anthony DeSclafani.

And, remarkably, keyed by the hitting of DeSclafani, who hit the Reds’ seventh grand slam in 33 days and their third of the week, but the first by a Cincinnati pitcher since Bob Purkey against the Cubs on Aug. 1, 1959.

DeSclafani (3-1) posted his third win in a row while giving up two runs and three hits in 6 1/3 innings.

Cubs reliever-turned-starter Luke Farrell (2-3) was long gone by then, having been lifted with only a 2-1 deficit and two outs in the third inning. The Reds went on to score eight more runs against the Cubs’ bullpen — and catcher Chris Gimenez, who pitched the eighth inning.

DeSclafani’s shot came with two outs in the third inning against left-hander Brian Duensing, and it was a no-doubt drive well up into the left-field stands.

“All in all Authentic Erik Karlsson Jersey Kids , I was trying to hit the ball hard somewhere and not strike out,” said DeSclafani, who came into the game with a .138 career batting average. “I knew a fastball was coming and I tried to square it up, and it happened to go out. … It was awesome. It all happened so quick.”

And slowly the Reds, once 8-27, are starting to play the way they expected when the season started. They’ve won nine of 11 and are 5-0 on their current six-game homestand.

“When you get down in the standings, it can be deflating,” said Reds interim manager Jim Riggleman, who replaced Bryan Price during the terrible start. “But they kept coming to the ballpark and working hard, and now we’re getting closer to respectability in the standings, though we’re not there yet.”

The Cubs’ domination of the Reds is disappearing, too – going into the series, they’d won 43 of 62 against them in the last four seasons — as quickly as DeSclafani’s homer reached the seats.

“We’re playing clean baseball — we’ve run the bases, made plays … are getting timely hits Jean-Gabriel Pageau Jersey ,” Riggleman said. “We have a nice string of well-played games.”

This probably isn’t encouraging to the Cubs’ faithful, either. Chatwood is 0-4 with a 4.18 ERA in five career appearances against the Reds. He has walked 63 batters in 68 1/3 innings this season.

Despite Chatwood’s lack of success against the Reds, only Joey Votto (2-for-10, .200) has double-digit at-bats against him.

Chatwood opposes right-hander Sal Romano (4-7), who is coming off his best start of the season — seven shutout innings against the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday. Romano gave up four hits and struck out six despite walking four in a 9-5 Reds victory in which the Tigers scored all of their runs in the ninth inning.

Romano’s last start against the Cubs wasn’t a good one. He surrendered seven runs and six hits in five innings of a 10-0 Chicago victory on May 19. He is 0-1 against them in two career games.

Maddon gave Kris Bryant the day off Saturday after he went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in the Reds’ 6-3 win Friday as he tries to get some of the slumping hitters going. Bryant is likely to be in the lineup Sunday against Romano.

“We’ve got to get (Willson) Contreras going, we’ve got to get KB (Bryant) and (Anthony Rizzo) going,” Maddon said. “I mean, these were our primary offensive weapons last year, and they really haven’t hit their stride yet.”

It’s the time of year when World Cup skiers get worn down with flu, fever and general fatigue – and all of the protagonists in Tuesday’s giant slalom were affected by it in one way or another.

Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany returned from two weeks in bed to claim her third win of the season while overall World Cup leader Mikaela Shiffrin cited fatigue as a factor after an uncharacteristic fall in the first run

”It’s Day 7 on snow in a row and Day 11 or 12 on snow with only one day off,” Shiffrin told The Associated Press. ”So it’s a lot. It’s definitely a point in the season where fatigue is starting to build up.”

Sitting third after the opening leg, Rebensburg had the fastest second run to finish 0.03 seconds ahead of first-run leader Ragnhild Mowinckel of Norway amid perfect conditions at the Kronplatz resort.

”After this period when I was lying at home on my couch watching other girls ripping it wasn’t easy to stay patient,” Rebensburg said. ”But now I’m 100 percent healthy.”

Mowinckel was 0.21 ahead of Rebensburg at the final checkpoint but lost speed through the final gates. Still, it was the Norwegian’s best career result and she celebrated as if she had won.

Defending champion Federica Brignone of Italy finished third Mark Stone Jersey , 0.66 behind, despite a fever that kept her out of Sunday’s super-G in Cortina d’Ampezzo.

”In between runs I was almost asleep,” Brignone said. ”But I tried not to think I’ve been sick the last few days and lying in bed all day long. … I tried to give everything in front of my people.”

Shiffrin lost control of her inside ski coming around a turn as she entered the toughest section of a slope named Erta, which translates as steep. With a gradient of 61 percent in that section, Shiffrin slid a long way down the course but immediately got up and was not injured.

”I got on my inside ski going over that breakover and it was the one turn that I knew like, `Have some direction, it gets really steep after this. It’s a short breakover. And you just want to make sure you’re on point on this turn,”’ Shiffrin said. ”And I was going into it really aggressive but fine.

”It happens,” Shiffrin added. ”One of the things I’ve been working on the most is putting the pressure on my outside ski so I don’t boot out like I did.”

After missing a gate on Sunday in the Cortina super-G, it marked the first time in more than six years that Shiffrin failed to finish two consecutive races. The last time came in back-to-back slaloms in Courchevel, France, and Flachau, Austria, in December 2011 – before the American registered her first World Cup podium.

It was the 16th career World Cup win for Rebensburg Youth Matt Duchene Jersey , who also won the giant slalom at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Rebensburg’s other wins this season came in the season opener in Soelden, Austria, in October and then in Killington, Vermont, in November.

Marta Bassino of Italy finished fourth and Sara Hector of Sweden was fifth.

Shiffrin still holds a massive 843-point lead over Rebensburg in the overall standings. In the GS rankings, Rebensburg moved 37 points ahead of Shiffrin.

”That’s how it goes when you’re pushing the limits,” Shiffrin said. ”I’ve been exploring that mentality of pushing my limit. I like to step in the race course to know that my skiing is good enough that I could ski at 90 percent but it’s more fun when I’m really hammering.

”And with GS there’s a lot of really awesome competition,” Shiffrin added. ”When I watch these girls I know they’re not holding back.”

Shiffrin had been undefeated this year in the technical disciplines of GS, slalom and parallel slalom with five straight wins.

She has two more technical races in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, next weekend before she travels to South Korea for the Pyeonghchang Olympics.

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This story has been corrected to show that Shiffrin has failed to finish two consecutive races before.

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