Cubs squander another lead, fall to Atlanta in 10 innings
One unavoidable truth about professional sports, especially when the Cubs are involved:
There's no guarantee tomorrow will be a better day.
The Cubs held the lead three times in Atlanta on Wednesday, but the Braves tied the score with a home run in the ninth, then scored twice in the 10th to hand the Cubs a gut-wrenching 6-5 defeat.
This result came a day after the Cubs squandered a 6-0 lead, with Atlanta scoring the go-ahead runs in the eighth on an error by Seiya Suzuki. Wednesday's contest featured another untimely Cubs error, just not as late in the game.
"We've got four games left to get this thing done," Ian Happ told reporters after the game. "We were 10 games under and really far out of it at one point, so to be in this spot isn't too bad.
"We've been in all these games, a lot of stuff not going our way. That doesn't mean you're going to stop playing."
Miami split a doubleheader with the Mets, so they pulled even with the Cubs for the third wild-card slot. The Marlins hold the tiebreaker, though, so if it ends this way the Cubs will be left out of the postseason. Cincinnati lost to Cleveland and it 1½ games behind.
The Cubs scored a run in the top of the 10th when a Happ sacrifice fly scored Mike Tauchman. Both Tauchman and Happ homered earlier in the game to give the Cubs a 3-1 advantage.
With Daniel Palencia on the mound in the bottom of the 10th, Ronald Acuna Jr. and Ozzie Albies delivered consecutive one-out RBI singles to score the tying and winning runs.
"We've got to do some little things a little bit better, try to get runners in from third with less than two outs, hasn't been our strength here this month," manager David Ross said. "Guys are laying it all out there, it's just a really good team. We've got to figure out a way to win a baseball game."
There was an awkward pause just before the winning run scored. Acuna stole second base to become the first player to hit 40 home urns and steal 70 bases in a season. He picked up second base and held it over his head, then acknowledged the crowd for a couple minutes before play resumed.
"Guy's 70 and 40, he's a really good player," Ross said. "He deserves that, right?"
Jameson Taillon was both solid and efficient through 6 innings, giving up 1 run on just 2 hits and throwing just 64 pitches. He seems to be back on a hot streak, with a 2.65 ERA in his last four starts.
When he came back out for the seventh inning, Taillon walked Austin Riley, gave up a single to Matt Olson, then was knocked out of the game by another untimely error.
Atlanta's Marcel Ozuna sent a slow ground ball to Nico Hoerner. With a chance to turn a double play, Hoerner tried to flip a quick toss to Dansby Swanson at second base but threw it too high and it bounced off Swanson's glove.
"I feel like I was making good pitches early in counts and getting some really good players out," Taillon said. "Then I feel like every start there's going to be a weird inning where you just face adversity. A couple close pitches, a nice at-bat by Olson, a little bit of a defensive miscue from a couple of the best defensive baseball players I've ever seen. It happens."
A run scored to make it 3-2 and Drew Smyly came in with two runners on and nobody out, but he got out of the jam with a grounder to first, strikeout and popup.
The Braves tied it in the eighth, though, when Acuna singled against Julian Merryweather, stole second and scored on an Albies single.
The teams traded runs in the ninth. After two walks Yan Gomes poked a broken-bat single to right field to score Swanson. Marcel Ozuna tied it with a one-out home run off Mark Leiter Jr.
The Cubs got a lucky break to score their first run in the second inning. With runners on first and third, Jeimer Candelario checked his swing and the ball clearly bounced off his bat and to the backstop. The runner on third, Cody Bellinger, treated it like a passed ball, ran home and after a conference, the umpires let the run stand. Apparently, that type of play is not eligible for review. Atlanta manager Brian Snitker was ejected while questioning the call.
Before the game the Cubs activated Candelario from the injured list and optioned Jared Young. Candelario, who was out with a back injury, started at first base and went 0-for-3 with a walk.