Braves vs. Cubs series recap: A six-game statement from Atlanta

This game started out with Grant Holmes seemingly cruising on his way to a quality start. Then the fourth ining rolled around and Holmes hit the wall hard. He gave up a one-out homer to Alex Bregman to tie the game up at one run apiece and then he walked the bases loaded immediately afterwards. It was honestly a bit of a miracle that Holmes only ended up surrendering two runs in this inning, with the other run coming as a result of a double play. It also ended up being huge that Holmes only gave up those two runs because that was the complete sum of offense the Cubs would end up mustering up for the entire game. The Braves didn’t wait too long to respond, as they eventually put up a four-spot in the fifth inning. Austin Riley tied things up with a long ball to tie it up again and then Mike Yastrzemski (who put the Braves on the board earlier on) hit his first dinger of the season in order to put the Braves ahead by two. Matt Olson added on an RBI single of his own and just like that, the Braves were up 5-2.

Thanks to Didier Fuentes, Dylan Lee and Raisel Iglesias all being unhittable (with Fuentes being especially impressive in his three innings of work), this ended up being a very frustrating night for the Cubs and an exciting return home for the Braves in the series opener.

Shota Imanaga was impressive for the Cubs in this one, as he ended up going seven innings and striking out six batters for Chicago in this one. He did give up two runs though and one of those runs on Imanaga’s line ended up being the winning run for the Braves. The first run for the Braves came on a solo shot from Drake Baldwin that he just muscled over the fence and into the bullpen in right-center for a solo shot that put the Braves into the lead. Eventually, the game was deadlocked at one run apiece after the sole run that JR Ritchie gave up during his 4.1 innings of work was standing up for the Cubs. Imanaga went back out there for the eighth and sure enough, Michael Harris II was able to get on base with a single to lead off the eighth and force the Cubs to go to their bullpen. Phil Maton got the ball and was immediately greeted rudely by Ha-Seong Kim joining Harris on the basepaths with a single. Mike Yastrzemski then came up huge for the second time in this series with an RBI double that broke the deadlock.

Despite Ha-Seong Kim getting thrown out by a mile at home on Yaz’s double, the opportunity to add on did not go by the wayside. That’s because Mauricio Dubón ended up cracking a dinger of his own to make it 4-1. By that time, Raisel Iglesias was called upon for a second consecutive night of duty and for the second night in a row, he closed things out in order to help give the Braves a series win in front of an electric crowd.

Things weren’t so electric for the Braves in this one. This was another case of Chris Sale pitching well but not well enough to win because the offense got locked up for the second Sale start in a row. You are not going to sit here and see me complain about another six strong innings from Sale, where he only gave up one run while striking out eight batters as well. This was a perfectly fine night on the mound for Sale and if Atlanta could’ve mustered up anything at the plate, we may have been talking about a sweep right now. Sale was in such a zone that he even forgot how many outs there were at one point!

Instead, Ben Brown and Chicago’s bullpen had redemption on the mind. Brown was extremely effective for the four innings that he pitched and while the Braves did get one hit each on Hoby Milner, Phil Maton, old friend Jacob Webb and Daniel Palencia, those lone hits were all they were able to get. There would be no late rallies or dramatics in this one as the Braves ended up having to settle for the series win after getting shut out for only the second time this season — both times at home, no less. So while I’d imagine that everybody was hoping and wishing for a sweep after the way the first two games went, I don’t think that anybody is going to complain about a series win — especially considering that it’s two series wins in a row against some of the best that the National League has to offer after a disappointing series loss in Seattle. The Braves are still riding high at the moment and they’re flying higher than any other team in baseball at the moment. The second win of this series pushed the Braves to 30 wins on the year and they’ll be the only team in baseball heading into Rivalry Weekend™ with 30 wins to their name so far. That’s pretty good! Even with the loss on Thursday, the Braves have to feel good about how their pitching staff performed against this potent Cubs lineup. Going three games against this squad and only giving up four runs (including a one-hitter in the series opener) is very impressive. It’s a crying shame that the best starting performance in this series (Chris Sale’s six innings) ended up being in vain but outside of that, you can’t complain too much about what the Braves got from Grant Holmes and JR Ritchie during this series as well. The bullpen was also very reliable during these three games as well, which is pretty encouraging to see. Obviously, we’ll have to see the trio of Spencer Strider, Bryce Elder and Grant Holmes (again? maybe?) hopefully go deep against the Red Sox in order to help give the bullpen a bit of a break but for now, you can’t complain about how the pitching has been so far when it comes to the entire staff. It was also nice to see Mike Yastrzemski start to show some signs of life at the plate and Austin Riley has started to look okay as well. If they can join in on the fun then it’ll certainly be exciting to see going forward and it could also mean good things for the upcoming series as well. The Red Sox may be tricky to deal with due to their pitching but if Atlanta’s lineup can continue to rake and deliver some timely hitting like they have on a somewhat regular basis so far this series then they’ll be fine going forward. Atlanta has been the best team in baseball so far and hopefully we’ll see it continue as they pass the first quarter pole of the season and approach the traditional Summer sign post of Memorial Day soon.