In the preview for tonight’s game, I mentioned that this game might come down to who could find the big hits in the latter stages of the game. The Braves have made a good living when it comes to either turning games around or finishing things off during the money innings (seventh, eighth and ninth), and it appeared that that was likely what this game was going to come down to.
Unfortunately for us Braves fans, it was the Cubs who managed to get the timely hitting — or any real hitting at all, as they
ended up keeping Atlanta completely quiet with a 2-0 shutout win to avoid getting swept.
Chris Sale did end up going six innings in this one and while he did get into some trouble during the first five frames, he was able to deftly dance around those problems like he usually does and kept the Cubs quiet for the most part. Sale eventually finished the night with eight strikeouts, which is just about what you’d expect from the veteran hurler even at this stage of his career.
The only real issue came in the sixth inning, which is when Sale walked Ian Happ to lead off the inning. It sure seemed like the next batter was going to hit a ground ball that could’ve been a double play. Instead, the Braves got none as Ha-Seong Kim’s flip to second was a poor one that went into the outfield for an error. The Cubs cashed in runners at the corners with a productive ground ball out from Matt Shaw that broke the 0-0 deadlock and gave Chicago the lead.
While this was going on, the Cubs were already having to dip into their bullpen — though it wasn’t because of lack of success on Ben Brown’s part. He was on a strict pitch count limit and he was certainly effective during the 65 pitches that he did throw. The Braves were only able to muster one hit and one walk off of Brown while he was out there and they didn’t look particularly close to pushing across a run during that stint.
It also didn’t help matters that Chicago’s bullpen kept the pedal to the metal once Brown left the game. Hoby Milner pitched two clean innings and then Phil Maton got a measure of redemption with his scoreless outing as well, which meant that the Cubs were holding on to a precious one-run lead once the game got into the latter stages.
That ended up being two runs once the eighth inning rolled around, as Ian Happ sent one to the Chop House at the expense of Reynaldo López for a solo shot that made it 2-0 Cubs. Old friend Jacob Webb pitched a scoreless eighth inning in order to keep it a two-run deficit, ensuring that it would take a dramatic rally from the Braves in the ninth inning to potentially turn things around.
Credit has to be given to Aaron Bummer to making sure that the Braves only had a two-run deficit to attempt to overcome in the ninth inning. Unfortunately, this night was all about Chicago’s pitching staff, as Daniel Palencia was absolutely electric to close this one out and doom the Braves to their second shutout loss of the season so far.
Instead of picking up a series win and a sweep against two of the best teams in the National League so far, the Braves will have to “settle” for just the two series wins — still a very positive result for this run of six games. Atlanta will now try to bounce back tomorrow night at 7:15 p.m. ET against their traditional Interleague rivals, the Boston Red Sox. If you’re going to the game, wear your red since it’s a red-out, and all.
