ATLANTA — Let slumping dogs lie?
The offensively challenged Cubs showed an early sign of stirring Tuesday night when Alex Bregman homered in the fourth inning at Truist Park before they tacked on another run in the inning. But Bregman’s blast was the their only hit in a 5-2 loss to the Braves, who showed off the high-powered offense and shutdown bullpen that have carried them to the best record in the National League.
On an evening when they honored two franchise legends, former owner Ted Turner and former manager Bobby Cox, who died within three days of each other last week, the Braves (29-13) rode home runs by Austin Riley and Mike Yastrzemski in a four-run fifth that wiped out a 2-1 Cubs lead.
Riley’s home run came on the first pitch of the inning from starter Colin Rea (4-2), who had been spared early trouble by center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong’s leaping catch in the second and second baseman Nico Hoerner’s diving stop in the third. But after a single by Dominic Smith, one of his four hits on the night, Yastrzemski crushed a hanging slider for his first homer after 119 at-bats in a Braves uniform.
“They had some pretty comfortable swings,” Rea lamented after taking the loss. “Even, like, the at-bat to Yastrzemski, he battled and fouled some pitches off, but I felt like he was on a lot of my pitches, and then I threw a hanger in the middle of the zone and he didn’t miss that one.”
Bregman, who was 6-for-his last 38 in his last 10 games and had homered just once in 148 at-bats since going deep twice in the third game of the season, homered into the visitors’ bullpen off starter Grant Holmes.
That ended the Cubs’ scoreless streak at 23 innings, a stretch that included back-to-back shutout losses to the Rangers in Texas. But in their last three games, all losses, the Cubs (27-15) have managed just eight hits — four, three and one, in that order. Those losse
