Home runs by Dansby Swanson and Jeimer Candelario capped a five-run first inning, which set the Chicago Cubs on their way to an 8-6 win over the visiting Atlanta Braves on Saturday.
Atlanta became Major League Baseball’s first team with 70 wins this season thanks to Friday’s 8-0 shutout to open the three-game weekend series in Chicago. Saturday’s first inning fast established there would be no repeat of Friday’s rout.
Walks drawn by the first two Cubs batters, Mike Tauchman and Nico Hoerner, off Braves starter Bryce Elder (8-3) set the scene for Chicago’s first two runs off a Matt Olson fielding error.
Cody Bellinger, who reached first safely on the error and then stole second, scored on Swanson’s 17th home run of the season.
Candelario closed the inning with a solo home run, his 17th of 2023, and the Cubs’ lead never dipped below two runs the rest of the way — though the Braves made the final score closer in the ninth.
That is when Olson homered off Adbert Alzolay, scoring Austin Riley after Riley’s one-out single, to halve an 8-4 deficit down to 8-6.
Alzolay recovered to force the next two Atlanta batters into ground-outs, preserving the Cubs’ fourth win in the last five games and pulling them to just two games behind Milwaukee in the National League Central.
Chicago starter Javier Assad pitched 3 2/3 innings, struck out three and allowed a pair of Atlanta runs — both earned — when Orlando Arcia drove in Sean Murphy on a sacrifice fly in the second.
Ozzie Albies hit a solo home run — his 25th of the season — in the third.
The Cubs pushed the lead back to five runs thanks to a Nick Madrigal RBI single that scored Candelario in the fourth, then Christopher Morel singled to send home Bellinger in the fifth.
The Braves answered with a pair of runs in the sixth off of Chicago reliever Mark Leiter Jr. Michael Harris II scored Travis d’Arnaud with a sacrifice fly, and Ronald Acuna Jr. drove in Eddie Rosario with a single.
Acuna went 3-of-5 and stole his league-leading 52nd base of the season.
Chicago responded in the seventh on Ian Happ’s solo home run, his 13th in 2023. The shot padded the Cubs’ cushion and helped Michael Fulmer (3-5) pick up the win.
–Field Level Media