A-Team leads Braves to win
ATLANTA — Ronald Acuna Jr. drove in Ozzie Albies with the tiebreaking run in the eighth inning to send the Atlanta Braves past the Chicago Cubs 4-1 on Wednesday night.
Carl Edwards Jr. (2-1) allowed five straight baserunners in Atlanta’s three-run eighth, including a bases-loaded walk to Tyler Flowers, without getting an out. Justin Hancock also forced in a run with a walk to Johan Camargo.
The Braves’ big inning was set up by Albies’ triple to the wall in center field past Albert Almora Jr., who robbed Flowers of a probable home run earlier in the game.
Albies scored on Acuna’s second hit of the game, a sharp single to left field off Edwards. Acuna moved to third on Freddie Freeman’s single against the shift to the opening on the left side of the infield. Freeman advanced to second on the play. After an intentional walk to Nick Markakis, Edwards walked Flowers to force in a run.
Albies scored Atlanta’s first run after his leadoff double in the first.
A.J. Minter (2-0) stranded two runners in the eighth. Arodys Vizcaino, who blew a save opportunity in Tuesday night’s 3-2 loss to Chicago, pitched a perfect ninth for his eighth save in 10 chances.
The Cubs had one baserunner in each of the first four innings but did not score until pulling even at 1-all in the fifth. Ian Happ led off with a single and scored on Kris Bryant’s single. Bryant had three hits.
The Braves took a 1-0 lead in the first when Albies doubled off the center-field wall and scored on Freeman’s single.
After allowing a combined 14 earned runs on 23 hits in only eight innings in losses to the San Francisco Giants and Miami Marlins in his previous two starts, Braves right-hander Brandon McCarthy gave up just one run and five hits in six innings.
Chicago’s Tyler Chatwood allowed one run and four hits in 5 1/3 innings. He appeared stunned when he was pulled after a single by Acuna. Brian Duensing walked Freeman before Markakis hit into his second inning-ending double play of the game.