ATLANTA — Let slumping dogs lie?
The offensively challenged Cubs showed an early sign of stirring Tuesday night when Alex Bregman homered in the fourth inning at Truist Park before they tacked on another run in the inning. But Bregman’s blast was the their only hit in a 5-2 loss to the Braves, who showed off the high-powered offense and shutdown bullpen that have carried them to the best record in the National League.
On an evening when they honored two franchise legends, former owner Ted Turner and former manager Bobby Cox, who died within three days of each other last week, the Braves (29-13) rode home runs by Austin Riley and Mike Yastrzemski in a four-run fifth that wiped out a 2-1 Cubs lead.
Riley’s home run came on the first pitch of the inning from starter Colin Rea (4-2), who had been spared early trouble by center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong’s leaping catch in the second and second baseman Nico Hoerner’s diving stop in the third. But after a single by Dominic Smith, one of his four hits on the night, Yastrzemski crushed a hanging slider for his first homer after 119 at-bats in a Braves uniform.
“They had some pretty comfortable swings,” Rea lamented after taking the loss. “Even, like, the at-bat to Yastrzemski, he battled and fouled some pitches off, but I felt like he was on a lot of my pitches, and then I threw a hanger in the middle of the zone and he didn’t miss that one.”
Bregman, who was 6-for-his last 38 in his last 10 games and had homered just once in 148 at-bats since going deep twice in the third game of the season, homered into the visitors’ bullpen off starter Grant Holmes.
That ended the Cubs’ scoreless streak at 23 innings, a stretch that included back-to-back shutout losses to the Rangers in Texas. But in their last three games, all losses, the Cubs (27-15) have managed just eight hits — four, three and one, in that order. Those losses followed their second 10-game winning streak. If it’s any consolation, the first 10-game streak also ended with three straight losses before the Cubs reeled off another 10 in a row.
“I feel a lot of guys squared the ball up, hit the ball hard all over the place,” Bregman said. “But that’s baseball. You show up tomorrow and hit it hard again, because the likelihood is if you keep hitting the ball hard, you’ll have success.”
No point in dwelling on the “1” in the hit column, he added.
“I feel like if we worry about that and not the process, it’s not good,” he said.
After Bregman’s homer, Holmes walked the next three batters to load the bases, but Braves shortstop Ha-Seong Kim, playing for the first time this season after falling on the ice in his native South Korea and cutting his finger, turned Moises Ballesteros’ smash up the middle into a force play at second. Dansby Swanson struck out to end the inning.
“If we can keep the momentum going there, maybe we get a big inning, but they got an out on that play,” manager Craig Counsell said. “You’re not going to get a ton of chances against a real good pitching staff.”
Holmes departed after the fourth. Didier Fuentes (2-0) threw three hitless innings before Dylan Lee and Raisel Iglesias went six-up, six-down to end it.
Bally-woe
In a bit of a surprise, Ballesteros was behind the plate for the second time this season after Counsell opted not to use him to spell Carson Kelly in Texas. Kelly caught all three games against the Rangers, including a day game after a night game. Miguel Amaya, who normally splits catching duties with Kelly, missed that series with tightness in his back but was good to go Tuesday night, Counsell said.
Instead, Counsell opted for Ballesteros, even though he, too, was in the midst of a slump. Although he was credited with an RBI on his fourth-inning fielder’s choice, he’s now 2-for-his last 39 (.051). Counsell said he wanted to get two additional left-handed bats in the lineup: Michael Conforto, who went 0-for-3 as designated hitter, and Ballesteros.
