Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: Draftees Beaming

Braves could not withstand the Cubs’ Sunday onslaught – bullpen blown out late and often.

Mama always said there would be days like this.

Jon Lester scattered 5 hits, while he and 2 relievers worked around 4 Cub errors while John Gant had an admirable start on Sunday afternoon – despite the 4 walks and 2 earned runs in 4.1 innings.

Unfortunately, Casey Kelly and Chris Withrow were both blasted for 10 hits, 3 walks, and 10 runs as the Cubs seemingly got their revenge for dropping the first game of this series.  They win the finale 13-2.

There is definitely funny business going on when Bill Murray is in the house, and he was certainly happy with the outcome as his Cubs (43-18) continue to set the pace for the majors.  The Braves (18-44) just aren’t getting any better, and seem to be cooling off as well – if you think they were ever hot in the first place.

Those words – “first place” – are going to be elusive for Atlanta in the foreseeable future:  they are now 20½ game in back of the NL East’s leading Nationals.

At this point, there are exactly 100 games left in the 2016 season.  If Atlanta were to play .500 ball the rest of the way, they would finish 68-94… one game better than 2015.

That would seem to be a very tall order right now.

Here’s your box score (use with caution):

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