The Atlanta Braves enjoyed the weekend sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks in a big way. Then, they gave it all back. The home team never led on Wednesday afternoon and the end result was a loss at the hands of the Chicago Cubs, who broke out the brooms in strong fashion with a final score of 8-2.
The visiting Cubs opened the scoring in the second inning based on some timely hitting. R.A. Dickey issued a walk to Kyle Schwarber and, after a wild pitch allowed him to move to second, Addison Russell brought his teammate to the plate with a double.
Aside from that mini-flourish, there were no fireworks to speak of on either side until the top of the fifth. On cue, opposing pitcher Mike Montgomery blasted a monster home run against Dickey to provide Chicago with another run of cushion at 2-0.
That set the stage for a potential rally in the bottom half of the inning, with Danny Santana reaching on a double and Sean Rodriguez drawing a walk in back-to-back plate appearances. After a double-steal placed both runners in scoring position with one out, Dansby Swanson struck out and the ninth spot in the order arrived.
Rather than pinch-hitting for Dickey, who had navigated five innings, Brian Snitker elected to allow the pitcher to hit for himself. The veteran promptly grounded out and that was the end of that. In short, that was not an ideal value proposition in what turned out to be the highest-leverage plate appearance of the entire game.
From there, Dickey immediately allowed a lead-off home run to former Braves infielder Tommy La Stella in the sixth, adding further insult to the managerial decision. Ender Inciarte “got that run back” with a home run in the sixth but Dickey then gave up back-to-back doubles to plate a run in the seventh and send the Braves back into a 4-1 hole.
Tyler Flowers would then homer in the bottom of the seventh to slash the margin to 4-2 but that was as close as things stood. In the top of the eighth, Rex Brothers led Atlanta into a jam and, after a pitching change, Chicago’s Javier Baez took Jose Ramirez deep to break the game open for good at 7-2. The home team would load the bases in the bottom of the eighth to (nominally) threaten, but a Matt Kemp double play ended that with haste and it was a slog to the end with a final of 8-2.
In terms of bright spots, there weren’t many to speak of on this afternoon. Freddie Freeman left the game after four innings with what the Braves described as “illness” and the only positive offensive showings came from the home runs of Flowers and Inciarte. Dickey didn’t struggle too terribly (7 IP, 4 ER, 5 K, 2 BB) but he was far from dominant and the theme of the day was offensive impotence.
Considering that followed two games in which the Braves scored a combined four runs, it was not a fun advertisement for the run-scoring operation in Atlanta. In the end, the Braves fell victim to the Cubs on three consecutive days and the team will look to right the ship against the scorching-hot Los Angeles Dodgers beginning on Thursday evening.
In short, there is a tall task ahead. Stay tuned.