The Cubs are still having trouble scoring runs, as you likely saw in the team’s 2-0 win over the Braves Thursday evening in Atlanta.
But with Ben Brown’s second straight excellent start and solid work from the bullpen, two runs was enough to win the game and end the Cubs’ four-game losing streak.
The Cubs had their chances off Chris Sale in the early innings, with two singles in the first and second innings. But all that did was add to their RISP woes.
They had five hits over the first four innings,
but nothing doing. Brown, though, was holding the Braves down even better than that — just one hit and one walk over four innings, with seven strikeouts. Brown threw 65 pitches (40 strikes) and just two runners got past first base.
Here are the seven K’s [VIDEO].
Here’s more on Brown’s outing [VIDEO].
And more from BCB’s JohnW53:
The last Cubs starter to depart after four scoreless innings was . . . Ben Brown, last week at Texas. He gave up no hits in that one; tonight, one.
Shōta Imanaga gave up no hits in a four-inning start on Opening Day of 2025 against the Dodgers at Tokyo.
Brown allowed one hit in 4.0 at home vs. the Braves on May 23, 2024, after Imanaga had yielded two at home vs. the Dodgers on April 7.
Javier Assad (four hits) and Marcus Stroman (two) turned the trick in 2022, for a total of seven such games in the last five seasons.
There had been 14 in all of 1901-2021.
The Cubs finally broke through against Sale in the sixth. Ian Happ led off with a walk. Seiya Suzuki hit a ground ball on which Ha-Seong Kim made an error, and the runners wound up on first and third.
Matt Shaw then grounded to short and beat a double-play relay, with Happ scoring [VIDEO].
Hoby Milner threw the fifth and sixth, allowing just one single. He had some help from Dansby Swanson on defense [VIDEO].
Phil Maton, who got hit pretty hard Wednesday evening, entered to throw the seventh, also allowing a single, but striking out two. In the top of the eighth, Happ gave the Cubs an insurance run with this long home run [VIDEO].
Just how long was that home run? Pretty darn long! [VIDEO]
Jacob Webb, who has been very good lately, threw the eighth, and like his predecessor relievers, allowed one hit, a single. Webb, last 10 games: 1.69 ERA, 12 strikeouts in 10.2 innings. He’s definitely going up in Craig Counsell’s circle of trust.
Thus Daniel Palencia got the save opportunity. He struck out the first two Braves in the ninth on six pitches, then allowed — you guessed it! — a single.
Palencia then retired Dominic Smith to end the game for his third save [VIDEO].
You can hear it on that clip — there were a LOT of Cubs fans in Atlanta. I think we’ll see that in most road series the rest of this year.
Here are some postgame remarks from Happ [VIDEO].
And here are Counsell’s postgame comments [VIDEO].
I concur with Counsell on his thoughts about Brown. As you know, I’ve been skeptical of Brown as a starter, but these two starts have certainly given Brown a lot of confidence, and adding new pitches has definitely helped him. It gives the Cubs the possibility of choosing Brown to do this again, and if they continue the rotation in order, his next turn would come up Tuesday against the Brewers at Wrigley Field.
One more note about Brown — check out these nasty curveballs, including the velocity and spin rate [VIDEO].
Everyone in the NL Central won on Thursday, so the Cubs’ lead remains 2.5 games over the Brewers and Cardinals. This was a solid team effort, especially from the bullpen. Here are some shutout notes from John:
This shutout, the Cubs’ third of the season, was their…
1,465th in the regular season since 1876
656th on the road in the regular season since then
183rd vs. the Braves
76th vs. the Braves on the road
34th vs. the Braves since 1966, their first year in Atlanta
13th at Atlanta, in 291 games thereThe last had been July 18, 2015, by 4-0. Jon Lester gave up two hits in 7.1 innings, Hector Rondon retired two batters to end the eighth and Jason Motte walked one in the ninth.
Lastly, the Cubs pitchers did a pretty good job of holding down a really good Atlanta offense, giving them just nine runs in three games. The Cubs, though, scored just five runs in the three-game series. They’ll have to do better than that going forward.
The Cubs returned home to Chicago after this win and will take on the White Sox this weekend on the South Side in the first of two three-game series against their crosstown rivals (the other, at Wrigley Field, will be in August). The teams will open the three-game series Friday evening. Edward Cabrera will start for the Cubs and Sean Burke goes for the Sox. Game time is 6:40 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network (and CHSN with the Sox announcers).
