Chris Sale was very solid for a new start, but it was not enough to prevent the Cubs Cobb County from leaving with the series victory. Two points in the fourth and one point in the fifth were enough for Chicago to achieve a good victory over the Atlanta Braves.
It was quiet for the first few innings until the third inning rolled around. Then Marcell Ozuna distracted it with a two -squeeze that escaped Seiya Suzuki’s glove in the right field and rose from the stones under the Chop House. Immediately after Ozuna walked to second place with a double Arizona Fall League -in -needed Nacho Alvarez Jr. Brought it home with its own double to break the impasse in favor of Atlanta. The Braves had the chance to add after Matt Olson walked to make two runners out with one out. Ronald Acuña Jr. Flew harmless for the second and then Drake Baldwin flew out to ensure that Jameson Taillon limited the damage to just one point.
The missed opportunity became crucial because Carson Kelly hit the very first throw he saw from Chris Sale in the seats beyond the bullpen in the left field for a solo -homer to lead the fourth inning. Shortly thereafter, Justin Turner hit one by a two -squeeze to cash in a single and stolen base of the old friend Dansby Swanson and push the Cubs in the lead as an immediate response to the waste of Atlanta. That is why you cash in your chances, people – the baseball gods are fast and cruel. Ha-seong Kim led Atlanta’s half of the fourth inning with a single, but he was swept away and tried to steal the second base and then the Braves then stopped to make sure that every reaction would not be quickly for Atlanta.
The Cubs eventually expanded their lead in the fifth inning after Nico Hoerner in essence had almost only made a run. He hit a single to distract the inning, was second on a idiosyncratic Pickoff attempt by Chris Sale, stole the third without throw and then pulled at home on a sacrificial fly where Acuña caught it without space to load a throw.
Marcell Ozuna and Jurickson Profar made the runners on the corners with only one to start it halfway through the game. We didn’t really expect Jameson Taillon to go for a long time in this and indeed, that was the impulse for the Cubs to go with Taylor Rogers at that time after 79 throws from Taillon. Thanks to Matt Olson, the Braves were able to redeem a sacrificial fly, but that was all they could handle, so the shortage was only cut on that point.
It turned out that the fifth inning was also the finish line for Chris Sale, whose night was done after 93 throws and five innings. This was actually the first time since May who had given up three points in an outing and the first time he had given up three points earned since April. Now granted, the sale has missed a few months earlier this summer, but that is still a pretty wild run for sale to continue. So although he was not his usual dominant himself, he still kept the Braves in the game and also threw nine batters on the way.
It remained quiet when the Bullpen became involved for both teams. Pierce Johnson threw a scoreless sixth, while Tyler Kinley continued, which was a pretty successful run for himself with the Braves so far by covering four innings over the seventh and eighth. Dylan Lee got the baton to finish the eighth inning and did this in short order. That eventually set the table for the Braves to try to get something in the bottom of the eighth inning. Matt Olson struck a one-out single, but two land from Acuña and Drake Baldwin sicked that chance before it had a real chance to be something.
Raisel Iglesias got the ball for the ninth inning and while he got a lead-off walk to Pete-Crow Armstrong, a ground ball in second place and then catching Nico Horner who tried to steal immediately after the groundout made it two for Iglesias at the time. Iglesias let Carson Kelly fly with runners on the corners to give the Braves a chance in their ninth inning against Andrew Kittredge. It turned out that they had no chance when Kittredge completely closed them to end the game.
Those are now 34 losses of one run for the Braves this season, which is 10 less than the general MLB record for one-run loses that were set by the 1968 White Sox. They will have to have an amazing series of bad luck to reach 10 more losses from one run, but with the way in which this season is gone, I would not dare the Braves from the up. Anyway, the Braves played the Cubs tough in this, but the wobbly middle innings of the sale and the lack of insulting of Braves against the Chicago pitching staff ended them in this in this. They now have to search later this weekend for a series of victory against the Astros in another heavy series. We will see what happens.
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