Chicago Cubs drop season-high 4th straight, wasting Shota Imanaga’s strong start in 4-1 loss to Atlanta Braves

“Three of these four days we’ve had the starter out before the fifth inning because we’ve piled up pitch counts, and we’ve had really good at-bats, and we’ve created action — we’re missing some hits right now,” Counsell said. “We’ve got some guys having good at-bats, they’re not ending up in hits. Some are ending up in walks, and some long at-bats that end up in outs that probably means we’re missing some pitches that we probably need to hit during the course of that.

“It adds up to some tough offensive games.”

Nico Hoerner’s RBI single tied the game in the fifth, but a chance for a multirun inning came up short when Alex Bregman grounded out to third with runners on second and third to end the frame. They had another chance to take the lead in the top of eighth with a two-out rally. Bregman singled and stole second, and Ian Happ challenged a full-count strike-3 call that was overturned to a walk. Seiya Suzuki, up for the second time with two on, struck out to end the eighth.

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Maton had pitched well this month coming into Wednesday’s appearance. He hadn’t allowed a run in five appearances while allowing just one hit and one walk. Harris’ infield single on a ball Hoerner tried to scoop and shovel with his mitt errantly got past first baseman Michael Busch, prompting Counsell to end Imanaga’s night at 96 pitches and right-handed hitting Ha-Seong Kim due up.

Maton didn’t bury a curveball low enough, allowing Kim to single to left field. Maton recovered to strike out lefty pinch hitter Dominic Smith, but for the second straight night Mike Yastrzemski burned the Cubs. Yastrzemski turned on a sweeper over the plate for a go-ahead RBI double. The Cubs cut down Kim at the plate to keep it a one-run game, at least briefly.

Maton has been wrestling with his curveball grip all season and continues to search for consistency. Mauricio Dubón delivered the big blow on another Maton curveball that caught too much plate for a two-run homer. A scuffling Cubs offense must find a way to beat left-hander Chris Sale on Thursday to avoid getting swept in Atlanta.

“We had a situation where we can escape with even just a one-run deficit and have more of a chance in the top of the ninth but got to execute that pitch there and give the boys a chance,” Maton said. “It’s still a matter of putting guys away when we have opportunities to do that and just not really doing that right now.”