By David O’Brien, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution –
ATLANTA — Eight times the Braves have faced Paul Maholm, and never have they scored more than two runs against the left-hander. Not once.
Maholm is with the Chicago Cubs this season, doing the same thing he did previously with Pittsburgh. That is, pitching better against the Braves than he does against anyone else.
He allowed one run and eight hits in six innings of a 5-1 Cubs win on Wednesday night at Turner Field, the fifth loss in seven games for the Braves. They didn’t cash in early scoring opportunities again, their bullpen faltered again, and the Braves slipped to six games behind NL East leader Washington, which beat San Francisco earlier Wednesday.
“Sometimes you meet a team that’s playing good baseball, and that’s what’s happening right now,” said Michael Bourn, who had three hits including a double and a triple. “They had won four in a row before (the Braves’ 10-3 win Tuesday). We just exploded last night. We had a chance tonight, too, but we hit the ball right at them. But breaks will fall our way.” The Braves need a win Thursday to salvage a split of the four-game series and 10-game homestand. They’ve lost five of nine on their longest homestand and open a three-game series at Philadelphia on Friday, their final games before the All-Star break.
Among the issues facing the Braves as they near the All-Star break is what to do with reliever Jonny Venters, who let in one run with a wild pitch and gave up another run on a homer in the two-run seventh that gave the Cubs a 4-1 lead.
The left-hander, one of the baseball’s top relievers during the previous two seasons, has a 6.08 ERA and .343 opponents’ average in 31 appearances since May 1. Venters has allowed 34 hits including six homers in 23-2/3 innings during that stretch, and Gonzalez was asked how long the Braves can continue to use him with games on the line.
“You feel like yo can get him over the hump, put him in situations where you think he’s going to be successful, and then keep going forward,” Gonzalez said. “ f we don’t get him right — and I’m not even talking about last year right, just a good left-handed arm out of the bullpen — we’re going to be up against it. We’ll keep working. He’s got a good frame of mind.” Braves rookie Randall Delgado (4-9) pitched six solid innings before Venters replaced him with a runner on in the seventh. Venters faced three batters and threw a wild pitch to the second one, Jeff Baker, to let in a run before Baker homered on the next pitch to push the lead to 4-1.
Anthony Rizzo added an eighth-inning homer off Anthony Varvaro. Braves relievers have allowed 30 homers, and only three major league bullpen had given up more than 30 before Wednesday.
Maholm (6-6) is 3-1 with a 1.36 ERA in eight starts against the Braves, including 2-0 with a 0.56 ERA in two this season. His career ERA against the Braves is less than half of his next-best against any other team.
“We hit some balls hard, hit some balls well and had some base hits against him,” right fielder Jason Heyward said. “Put him in some situations where he needed to make great pitches, and it seemed like he made them.” Heyward had some tightness in his upper side during his ninth-inning at-bat, but said it was just a cramp, not a muscle strain, and that he would be ready to play Thursday.
Trailing 2-1 with two runners on in the sixth, the Braves looked like they might tie the score when David Ross hit a two-out single to left field. But Alfonso Soriano, not known for defense, fielded the ball cleanly and fired a perfect throw to the plate to cut down Chipper Jones trying to score from second base.
Delgado was charged with seven hits, three runs and two walks in six-plus innings, and was pulled after Darwin Barney’s leadoff double in the seventh.
“He pitched pretty good,” Gonzalez said of Delgado. “Gave up three runs, scattered some hits, got out of some jams. You want to see how far you can take him. Leadoff double, then you try and match up the rest of that inning and they put up a 2-spot there. But most nights (allowing) three runs is pretty good to win a ballgame, really.” It was a winnable ballgame until the bullpen took over.
“You feel pretty good that you can win a one-run ballgame at any time,” Gonzalez said. “You try to match up and they just got two runs (off Venters), a slider wild pitch and a slider to Baker on the home run. They score two, then they added on with Rizzo’s home run off of Varvaro, and then we just couldn’t do anything offensively.” Jones followed his 5-for-5 game Tuesday by singling in the first inning for his sixth consecutive hit, extending his hitting streak to 11 games. He had two hits Wednesday, and Bourn had three hits and fell a home run shy of hitting for the cycle. Bourn had a first-inning single, third-inning triple and fifth-inning double.
The Cubs scored a run in the first when Starlin Castro raced home from third base after catcher David Ross threw out Rizzo trying to steal second.
The Braves loaded the bases with one out in the first on three singles, including one by Martin Prado to extend his hitting streak to 10 games. But Freeman hit a hard grounder into the defensive shift and the Cubs turned it into an inning-ending double play.
“Freddie hit the ball hard,” Bourn said. “They just happened to playing a shift where the dude was up the middle. So it was an easy double play for them once that happened. D-Ross hit the ball hard, too, and Soriano made a good throw. Nothing you can fault about that.” Martin Prado singled to drive in Bourn with the tying run in the third, but the Cubs answered in the fourth with a Bryan LaHair homer for a 2-1 lead.
Delgado is 1-4 with a 3.14 ERA in his past seven starts at Turner Field, and the Braves scored one or no runs while he was in six of those seven games.
“That’s part of the game,” Delgado said. “Nobody can control that. It’s not a problem. I’m just trying to do my job, and that’s it.”
