May 5, 2024
ATLANTA (AP) — Sean Murphy reached on a two-run fielding error by right fielder Seiya Suzuki in the eighth inning and the major league-leading Atlanta Braves overcame a six-run deficit to beat the Chicago Cubs 7-6 on Tuesday night.
“I thought it was going to get caught, but it (was lost) in the lights or whatever happened, I don't know,” Murphy said. “It's good to be lucky some days.”
The victory eliminated wild-card contending Chicago from the NL Central race, giving the title to the Milwaukee Brewers.
Suzuki ran to his right and called off center fielder Cody Bellinger, but apparently lost the fly ball in the lights and dropped it. Drew Smyly (11-10) aided the comeback by throwing two wild pitches in the eighth, letting Matt Olson advance to third and setting the stage for pinch-runner Forrest Wall to steal second.
“I was actually seeing it pretty well until the very last second,” Suzuki said through a translator. “I honestly thought it went into my glove, so it was just that split second where it just blurred my vision.”
Both runners easily scored on Suzuki's error. Brad Hand (5-2) worked a scoreless eighth to win it. Raisel Iglesias got his 31st save in the ninth after facing four batters.
“Those errors out there in the outfield don't really lead to the best result, so I feel like I need to hold a better consciousness when I go out there and focus on my game,” Suzuki said.
The Braves cut it to 6-3 in the sixth on Kevin Pillar's ninth homer, Olson's RBI single and Marcell Ozuna's RBI double. Pillar's drive gave the Braves 300 homers for the season and made them the third team in major league history (joining the 2019 Minnesota Twins and 2019 New York Yankees) to hit 300.
Ronald Acuña Jr. hit his 41st homer, a two-run shot to right in the seventh, to make it 6-5.
“We know what we're capable of offensively,” Pillar said. “We just try to be a dangerous offense and compensate when the pitching is not on that day.”
Atlanta, already guaranteed a postseason berth for the sixth straight year, has a 4 1/2-game lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers for the NL's best record. The Braves are three games ahead of Baltimore for the best record in the majors with five games left in the regular season.
The Cubs led 2-0 with two outs in the second on Yan Gomes' RBI infield single and Miles Mastrobuoni's RBI single up the middle. Suzuki made it 4-0 in the second when he tripled into the gap in right-center, and Bellinger's RBI single padded the lead to 5-0 in the fourth, a liner that chased Bryce Elder.
Elder allowed seven hits, five runs and four walks in 3 2/3 innings. He has a 9.49 ERA in his last three starts. Justin Steele gave up six hits and three runs in 5 1/3 innings.
The Cubs went up 6-0 in the sixth on Ian Happ's RBI single, but that was as far as they would get.
“What a job the bullpen did tonight,” Murphy, the Braves' catcher, said of the performances by Jackson Stephens, Pierce Johnson, Hand and Iglesias. “Those guys kept us in the game and gave the offense a chance.”
Chicago, trying to make the postseason for the first time since 2020, dropped a game behind Arizona for the second of three NL wild-cards. The Cubs are one-half game ahead of fourth-place Miami, which was rained out at the New York Mets.
