Cody Bellinger knocks in 3 as Cubs beat Nationals 7-6 to stave off postseason elimination

CHICAGO (AP) — Seiya Suzuki homered, Cody Bellinger drove in three runs and the Chicago Cubs topped the Washington Nationals 7-6 on Thursday night to stave off elimination from the postseason.

Joey Gallo hit a three-run home run for Washington, which has dropped four straight.

The Cubs trailed 6-5 after Gallo’s shot in the sixth off reliever Drew Smyly, but took the lead for good with a two-run seventh. Bellinger singled in the tying run and Isaac Paredes came up next to tag reliever Robert Garcia (3-6) with an RBI groundout.

Dansby Swanson added three hits and scored four times for Chicago, which remained seven games out of the final NL wild card berth with nine to play after New York and Arizona won earlier Thursday.

Bellinger said the Cubs aren’t worried about their postseason hopes dying as early as this weekend.

“You still want to get the job done and make plays for your pitcher,” he said.

Ethan Roberts (1-0), the third of five Cubs relievers, got his first career win and Porter Hodge worked the ninth for his sixth save.

“Top of the lineup did a heck of a job, for sure,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said after his first four hitters accounted for 10 hits and five RBIs.

The teams swapped runs in the first inning before trading two-run frames in the third. In Chicago's half of the third, Suzuki hit his 21st home run of the season, a two-run shot off starter Patrick Corbin.

“I’m seeing the ball well,” Suzuki said through a translator after extending his hitting streak to 10 games. “I feel like I can get a little more aggressive.”

Chicago added two more runs to make it 5-3 before Gallo connected off Drew Smyly in the sixth to give the Nationals a brief 6-5 lead.

CJ Abrams had four hits and scored twice while rookie Darren Baker added three hits and scored a run for Washington.

“We swung the bats well, I thought we ran the bases well,” Washington manager Dave Martinez. “Keep swinging the bats like that and we’ll be fine.”

Chicago starter Javier Assad allowed seven hits, three runs and a walk while striking out five in the first five innings.

Corbin surrendered eight hits and five runs with a walk while striking out four in 4 1/3 innings.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Nationals: OF Jacob Young left with shoulder soreness after getting caught stealing in the second. He’ll be evaluated further on Friday. … Catcher Keibert Ruiz took an Isaac Paredes foul ball to his groin in the third but remained behind the plate after a once-over from the training staff.

Cubs: Paredes appeared to have his left hand bent back in the third when James Wood slid into third base, but he stayed in the game and made the ensuing play in the field.

UP NEXT

The series continues Friday afternoon when Washington’s Trevor Williams (5-0, 2.22 ERA) makes his first start since May 30 against fellow RHP Jameson Taillon (10-8, 3.54).

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Chicago Cubs designated hitter Seiya Suzuki runs the bases on a two-run home run during the third inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

Chicago Cubs designated hitter Seiya Suzuki runs the bases on a two-run home run during the third inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

Chicago Cubs designated hitter Seiya Suzuki hits a two-run home run during the third inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

Washington Nationals' Joey Gallo, front right, high-fives Darren Baker(10) after hitting a three-run home run during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

Washington Nationals' Joey Gallo hits a three-run home run during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

Chicago Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson, left, and second baseman Nico Hoerner celebrate after their win over the Washington Nationals in a baseball game Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

Chicago Cubs' Dansby Swanson scores on a single from Cody Bellinger during the first inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

Chicago Cubs designated hitter Seiya Suzuki, center, high-fives manager Craig Counsell after hitting a two-run home run during the third inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

Chicago Cubs' Cody Bellinger signals to the dugout after hitting a single, allowing Dansby Swanson to score, during the first inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

LONDON (AP) — A car-ramming at a Christmas market in Germany, which police are treating as an attack, is the latest in a grim series of events in which vehicles have been used as deadly weapons.

There have been a spate of such attacks over the past decade, some committed by groups but most by individuals. The motives – where they could be established – have varied widely. Some were inspired by Islamic militant groups such as al-Qaida and ISIS, which encouraged followers to carry out low-cost, low-tech attacks with cars and trucks. Others have been linked to mental illness, far-right extremism and online misogyny.

What law-enforcement authorities term “vehicle as a weapon attacks” have reshaped cities around the world, as planners erect concrete barriers around public spaces and build anti-vehicle obstacles into new developments.

Here are some major vehicle attacks:

MAGDEBURG, Germany, Dec. 20. 2024 — At least five people are killed and more than 200 injured when a car slams into a Christmas market in eastern Germany. The suspect, who was arrested, is a 50-year-old doctor originally from Saudi Arabia who had expressed anti-Muslim views and support for the far-right AFD party.

ZHUHAI, China, Nov. 11, 2024 — A 62-year-old driver rams his car into people exercising at a sports complex in southern China, killing 35 people in the country’s deadliest mass slaying in years. Authorities said the perpetrator was upset about his divorce but offered few other details.

LONDON, Ontario, June 6, 2021 — Four members of a Muslim family die when an attacker hits them with a pickup truck while they are out for a walk, in what Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calls “a terrorist attack, motivated by hatred.” White nationalist attacker Nathaniel Veltman was sentenced to life in prison.

TORONTO, April 23, 2018 — A 25-year-old Canadian man, Alek Minassian, drives a rented van into mostly female pedestrians on Yonge St., the main thoroughfare in Toronto, killing 10 people and injuring 16. Minassian told police he belonged to the online “incel” community of sexually frustrated men.

NEW YORK, Oct. 31, 2017 — Sayfullo Saipov, an Islamic extremist from Uzbekistan, drives a pickup truck onto a popular New York City bike path, killing eight.

BARCELONA, Aug. 17, 2017 — A man driving a van slams into people on the Spanish city’s crowded Las Ramblas boulevard, killing 14 and injuring many others. Several members of the same cell carry out a similar vehicle attack in the nearby resort town of Cambrils before they are shot dead by police. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia, Aug. 12, 2017 — During a “Unite the Right” rally, white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. intentionally drives his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring dozens of people.

LONDON: March 22, 2017 — British man Khalid Masood rams an SUV into people on Westminster Bridge, killing four, before stabbing to death a policeman guarding the Houses of Parliament nearby. He is shot dead. June 3, 2017 — three attackers drive a van at pedestrians on London Bridge before stabbing people in nearby Borough Market. Eight people are killed and the attackers shot dead by police. June 19, 2017 — Darren Osborne, a man radicalized by far-right ideas, drives a van at worshippers outside a mosque in London’s Finsbury Park area, killing one man and injuring 15 people.

MELBOURNE, Australia, Jan 20, 2017 – Six people are killed and more than 30 injured when a car hits lunchtime crowds at a pedestrian mall in Australia’s second-largest city. Perpetrator James Gargasoulas is found to have been in a state of drug-induced psychosis.

BERLIN, December 19, 2016 — Anis Amri, a rejected asylum-seeker from Tunisia, plows a hijacked truck into a Christmas market in the German capital, killing 13 people and injuring dozens. The attacker is killed days later in a shootout in Italy.

NICE, France, July 14, 2016 — Tunisian-born French resident Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel drives a rented truck for more than a mile (almost 2 kilometers) along a packed seaside promenade in the French Riviera resort on the Bastille Day holiday, killing 86 people in the deadliest attack of its kind.

APELDOORN, Netherlands, April 28, 2009 – Former security guard Karst Tates drives a car into parade spectators in an attempt to hit an open-topped bus carrying members of the Dutch royal family. Six people are killed and Tates dies of injuries the next day, leaving his full motive a mystery.

CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina, March 3, 2006 — University of North Carolina graduate Mohammed Taheri-Azar drives an SUV into a crowd at the university, lightly injuring nine people, in a self-professed bid to avenge Muslim deaths overseas.

FILE - Injured people are treated in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, Aug. 17, 2017 after a white van jumped the sidewalk in the historic Las Ramblas district, crashing into a summer crowd of residents and tourists. (AP Photo/Oriol Duran, File)

FILE - In this April 23, 2018, file photo, police stand near a damaged van after a van mounted a sidewalk crashing into pedestrians in Toronto. (Aaron Vincent Elkaim/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

FILE - Forensic officers move the van at Finsbury Park in north London, where a vehicle struck pedestrians in north London Monday, June 19, 2017. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)

FILE - In this Dec. 20, 2016 file photo the trailer of a truck stands beside destroyed Christmas market huts in Berlin, Germany. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, file)

FILE - In this July 14, 2016 file photo, authorities investigate a truck after it plowed through Bastille Day revelers in the French resort city of Nice, France, killing 86 people. (Sasha Goldsmith via AP, File)

FILE - In this Wednesday, March 22, 2017 file photo, police secure the area on the south side of Westminster Bridge close to the Houses of Parliament in London. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)

FILE - People fly into the air as a vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. (Ryan M. Kelly/The Daily Progress via AP, File)

FILE - In this Dec. 20, 2016 file photo Christmas decoration sticks in the smashed window of the cabin of a truck which ran into a crowded Christmas market Monday evening killing several people in Berlin, Germany. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, file)