Cubs smack Glavine, Braves

Nevermind how his elbow might have been feeling, Tom Glavine needed his old stone-faced expression to hide his disappointment at how his return to the rotation was working out.

The Cubs bombarded Glavine and his partially torn flexor tendon with seven runs on seven hits Thursday, including a three-run homer by Aramis Ramirez and a two-run jack by Alfonso Soriano.

Enlarge this image

John Bazemore/AP

A member of the Chicago Cubs training staff rushes to attended to the Cubs’ Aramis Ramirez after he was injured sliding into home plate during the fifth inning.

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

That was just the start of a wild 11-7 win by the Cubs, who chased Glavine after four innings in a game that had a little of everything.

Mark Kotsay interrupted the Cubs’ offensive outburst by hitting for the cycle, becoming only the fifth player to do it in Braves franchise history and second in Atlanta history since 1900. Albert Hall was the last to do it for Atlanta on Sept. 23, 1987.

Benches cleared after Ted Lilly hit Yunel Escobar in the sixth inning. And Jeff Francoeur pulled off a rare feat as well — hitting a three-run homer — only his second home run since June 2 — and putting up his first three-hit game since May 21.

Ultimately, the Cubs outscored the Braves 29-9 this series and made it a perfect 6-0 on the year for their first ever season sweep over the Braves.

“It’s just disappointing, when all these Cubs fans come to town and to get swept kind of feels helpless,” Francoeur said. “As bad as it is as a team, for me [tonight] is a little bit of a confidence-builder.”

Kotsay picked the most dramatic way to reach 1,500 hits, with a triple in his first at-bat, his sixth homer of the year in his second, a single past in his third and a double to the right-field corner in his fourth. He singled in the ninth for 1,501 and the third five-hit game of his career.

“Fortunately the stars aligned,” Kotsay said. “It takes some luck obviously to do that. I did have some good at-bats, the focus and concentration seemed good tonight.”

Tensions have simmered since last year between these teams and nearly boiled over in the sixth after Lilly hit Escobar on the elbow. Escobar pointed to Lilly and jawed at him, clearing both benches. No blows were exchanged, and both benches were warned.

Lilly was ejected June 10 of last year after hitting Edgar Renteria in retaliation for Tim Hudson hitting Alfonso Soriano the night before.

Soriano and Lilly were both back in the middle of things again. Reliever Francisley Bueno buzzed Soriano in the first game of a doubleheader Wednesday after Soriano had admired a drive off the left-field wall. Bueno was hit with a three-game suspension Thursday.

“Lilly threw at Edgar’s head last year, he threw over [Brian McCann’s] head in Chicago, and all of a sudden he’s going to hit Escobar,” Francoeur said. “You can’t do that. What Soriano did yesterday with pimping the home run [and getting hit], that’s part of the game, just like anybody on our team. Down in Florida when Escobar pimped that one home run, he got hit, and he deserved it. But tonight he did nothing wrong, he got hit; he had every right to be mad.”

Escobar left in the eighth after his elbow swelled up, and he said afterward his elbow was “not good.”

Glavine was hoping to use the next six weeks to prove he has something left at age 42. It was a struggle Thursday night. Pitching for the first time since June 10, he used a double play to limit damage in the first, but it caught up to him in the third.

He gave up back-to-back singles and Ramirez’s 20th homer of the season. An inning later, Soriano had his 22nd. Soriano is hitting .353 (53-for-150) with 15 homers and 34 RBIs in 36 games against the Braves.

“I’m disappointed with how it went, but I’m going to be realistic about it and know that I obviously have some things to work on,” Glavine said. “It’s going to be more [about] trying to get a feel for my pitches consistently the way I want to.”