Atlanta Braves Bats Silenced as Lester, Cubs Bests Braves Hitters
By Dan Horton
Atlanta Braves Fall to Jon Lester and the Cubs, Again, 13-2
Fresh off one of the 5 top rated drafts by MLB.com’s Jim Callis, and one of the most promising drafts in recent years, the Braves fell to the Cubs again, 13-2 on a windy, humid day at Turner Field.
Both the Cubs and Braves put first run innings on the board.
Anthony Rizzo‘s double in the first scored former Braves right fielder Jason Heyward to give Chicago a 1-0 lead.
Atlanta answered with a run in the bottom of the first. After singles by Chase d’Arnaud and Freddie Freeman, the Braves attempted a rare double steal with Chase and Freeman.
It worked. Cubs backstop David Ross threw to second to get Freeman. The ball scooted into center field and Chase trotted home to get the Braves on the board.
In the foiurth, Ross made up for the errant throw into center by singling home Chris Coghlan. Then, Cubs hurler Jon Lester helped himself out by sacrificing home Javier Baez. Score stood 3-1 Cubs.
The Cubbies added to their leadin the sixth. That man David Ross again signled home Coghlan. That inning would end on a “slide rule” review. On a ground ball to Freeman, Freddie threw to second to get Ross, who didn’t attempt a slide and went in standing to break up the play.
Ross wound up running into the infield grass and the throw to Casey Kelly covering first was wide. Erick Aybar was calling for a review saying he was interfered with.
The umpires obliged and overturned the call. Double play was the ruling and the side was retired.
The Cubs continued to pile on the runs in the seventh. A double by Heyward and a Rizzo single pushed it to 5-1. Ben Zobrist added a double of his own and Kris Bryant came around to score; 7-1 Cubs.
After Kelly loaded the bases on a walk to Coghlan, he was relieved by Alexi Ogando who got Baez to strikeout swinging. But Ogando walked in a run after a 6 pitch walk to Ross and scored Rizzo to make it 7-1 Cubs.
Ogando got Lester to ground out to Freeman to end the inning.
The eighth proved no better for the Braves. More runs would cross in the eighth. Six runs actuallyand make it a 13-1 game late. Walks, which was the story of the day, haunted the Braves all day long.
Through 7 and a 1/3, the Braves had issued 8 free passes. No one could find the strike zone. And once they did find the zone, it was tattooed. The big blow in the 8th, was a 3-run home run from Javier Baez.
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Atlanta Added a run in the 8th on a Jeff Francoeur seeing-eye single to plate Ender Inciarte.
The Braves welcome in the Reds on Monday and on the mound for Atlanta will be Aaron Blair, 0-4, 7.13 ERA.