Yastrzemski drives in tiebreaking run, Dubón and Baldwin homer as Braves beat Cubs 4-1
Mike Yastrzemski drove in the tiebreaking run with a pinch-hit double in the eighth inning, and Mauricio Dubón finished off Chicago with a two-run homer that carried the Atlanta Braves to a 4-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday night.
The Braves extended baseball's best record to 30-13 and made it two in a row over the Cubs, who arrived in Atlanta with the NL's second-best mark but now have lost a season-high four in a row.
Shota Imanaga (4-3) was the hard-luck loser for Chicago. He pitched into the eighth, surrendering a homer to Drake Baldwin but left with the score tied at 1 after giving up an infield single to Michael Harris II leading off the decisive inning.
Ha-Seong Kim followed with his first hit of the season, a single to left against Phil Maton. Pinch-hitter Dominic Smith struck out, but manager Walt Weiss got the hit he needed when he sent up Yastrzemski to bat for José Azócar.
Robert Suarez (4-0) earned the win with a scoreless eighth and Raisel Iglesias remained scoreless on the season with his eighth save.
Baldwin went deep in the fourth inning, turning a sweeper into a 402-foot drive into the Braves bullpen in deep right-center.
The Cubs tied the game their next time up and finished off Braves rookie starter JR Ritchie. Carson Kelly led off with a single and Ritchie was lifted after a one-out walk to Dansby Swanson. Tyler Kinley couldn't escape the jam, giving up an RBI single to Nico Hoerner.
Ritchie went 4 1/3 innings, giving up just two hits but struggling a bit with his command. He walked three while throwing 87 pitches in his fourth big league start.
The Cubs managed just four hits — all singles — after being held to a single hit in the series opener, a 5-2 victory for the Braves.
Up next
The teams wrap up their three-game series on Thursday, with LHP Chris Sale (6-2, 2.20 ERA) going for the Braves against Cubs RHP Ben Brown (1-1, 1.82).