Vazquez, Braves shut down Cubs

It was only a makeup game, an asterisk of a matchup against the Cubs to start a homestand loaded with heavy-hitters like the Yankees and Red Sox.

But the Braves had one matter they wanted to take care of first Monday night and that was snapping a five-game losing streak with Javier Vazquez on the mound.

Enlarge this image

Curtis Compton / ccompton@ajc.com

Javier Vazquez delivers a pitch in the first inning.

• More game photos

BY THE NUMBERS

• Box score • Standings • Stats

RELATED STORIES

• Analyzing Braves' up-and-down season so far 
• All-Star McCann earns praise of peers 
• Braves stunned by Rockies in ninth 

       • More Braves coverage

Behind Vazquez’s 6-2/3 innings of dominant work, the Braves held off the Cubs 2-0 to get Vazquez his first win since May 20. The right-hander combined with Peter Moylan, Mike Gonzalez and Rafael Soriano to pitch the Braves’ fifth shutout of the season and helped atone for those back-to-back eight-inning outings against the Pirates and Reds in his past two starts that yielded him nothing.

“He’s pitched almost lights out all season long and tonight was his sixth win,” Braves manager Bobby Cox said. “It’s unfortunate but he’s pitched well every single game. He’s one of those guys we haven’t been able to score runs for. Tonight we got him one to work with early and he knew what to do with it.”

Vazquez made a 1-0 lead hold up until his night was over with two outs in the seventh. Then Chipper Jones added insurance on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh to score Nate McLouth, who had doubled and taken third on a Martin Prado single.

The stroke for Jones came on the last pitch from Ryan Dempster, who is on a hard luck streak himself, dropping to 0-2 in his last four starts despite a 2.10 ERA in that time. He is 2-11 overall now against the Braves.

Monday night was a gutsy effort by Vazquez, who worked around nine hits, all singles, walked two and struck out five. He threw a season-high 116 pitches and at one point waved off Cox and assistant trainer Jim Lovell after he appeared to aggravate his sore neck fielding a groundball. He stuck it out and worked his way out of a bases loaded jam.

“I felt like I made the big pitch when I needed it,” said Vazquez, who said he felt a brief shock down his neck which soon went away. “I don’t think I had my best stuff out there today but I battled.”

His teammates did too. Brian McCann went diving into the backstop trying to catch a pop-up in the fifth inning and later slammed his bat down after lining out to strand two runners.

Moylan stranded Vazquez’s last two runners by getting Derrek Lee, who is on a career-high 19-game hitting streak, to flyout on two pitches.

Rafael Soriano stranded two runners of his own in the ninth by striking out the side for his sixth save.

The Braves went up 2-1 in the season series with the Cubs and started off a difficult homestand on a positive note.

“We’re 1-0 now,” said Jeff Francoeur, who went 2-for-4 with a double. “We’ve got nine games against three of the better teams in baseball (including the Phillies next week). We’ll see what we’re made of.”

Yunel Escobar was scratched with a sore hip flexor Monday but his replacement, Diory Hernandez, played steady defense and scored the Braves’ first run. He drew a leadoff walk in the third inning and came around to score McLouth’s RBI single. Kelly Johnson later had to leave the game with leg cramps after running the bases in the bottom of the fifth inning.

The Braves had their share of frustrations against Dempster, scoring only once while stranding seven runners in the first six innings. Garret Anderson helped run the Braves out of another scoring opportunity in the fourth inning when he got caught leaning off second on a Casey Kotchman grounder to the pitcher. It may have cost the Braves a run as Francoeur followed with a double to right center.

Then there was the double play that snapped McLouth’s streak of 31 consecutive stolen bases when Geovany Soto gunned him down after Dempster struck out Jones on a 3-2 count with the runners moving. McLouth is 10-for-11 in stolen bases this year and 67-for-73 for his career (92 percent).