CHICAGO — Whether it be because of the opponent’s pitching, some tough luck or a mix of both, the Braves’ offense went rather quietly in the first two games at Wrigley Field. They fell far short of the ridiculous figures they put up during their winning streak.
Well, the Braves on Sunday unloaded like they did during that run.
It may be no coincidence that the Braves unloaded versus Kyle Hendricks, whom they had battered multiple times before Sunday.
Atlanta won the series finale, 6-0, behind an explosive performance against Hendricks, who does not look to be the pitcher he used to be for the Cubs. The Braves went 4-2 on their two-city road trip that began with three games in Washington.
“It was a pretty decent series,” Michael Harris said. “I wish we could’ve won a series, but we’re doing pretty good this month. Only having two losses right now, we still feel good. Get home on a win and get in front of our fans and try to win more.”
The Braves (38-29) tagged Hendricks for six runs over 4 ⅓ innings. They scored three runs in the first inning and three more in the fifth. They homered twice versus Hendricks, including Travis d’Arnaud’s three-run blast that gave them an early lead. They gave a ton of run support to Ian Anderson, who didn’t need it.
The performance sent the Braves home on a happy flight. They needed this one.
“It’s a winning road trip,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “Especially when you have a streak and you lose the game, you love to win the next one just so you don’t get mired in something else. I think this win right now is big for us. The streak was awesome, was great, but then losing two in a row, I think it was important to win this one.”
This beatdown marked the continuation of a familiar storyline. In recent seasons, the Braves have hammered Hendricks, who was a big part of the Chicago team that won the World Series in 2016.
Before this game, Hendricks had a 6.03 ERA in seven games, six of them starts, versus Atlanta. Last season, the Braves scored seven earned runs off him in two separate games and had 11 hits in one of them.
They apparently see him well.
Asked why, Snitker said: “I don’t have any idea. Because he’s good, he can spot up.”
Needing a win to avoid a sweep, the Braves took advantage of a meeting with Hendricks. The right-hander, now 32 years old, topped out at 88 mph and regularly worked in the high 70s to mid 80s.
In the top of the first inning, d’Arnaud took a sinker on the inside part of the plate and hit it 433 feet beyond the left-field bleachers and onto Waveland Avenue. This gave the Braves an early 3-0 lead, but they didn’t stop there.
For the most part, Hendricks pitched well as he held Atlanta scoreless in innings two through four. He tossed 1-2-3 frames in two of those innings.
Then came the fifth, when the Braves ended his afternoon.
Michael Harris saw an 85 mph four-seam fastball – yes, 85 mph – in the middle of the plate and hit an opposite-field homer. All three of his home runs as a major leaguer have been opposite-field blasts.
Then Dansby Swanson, Austin Riley and Matt Olson hit three straight one-out doubles (this was Olson’s second of three doubles). Riley and Olson’s doubles scored runs, which chased Hendricks from the game. Hendricks allowed eight hits, and four of them were extra-base hits in that top of the fifth.
“He had it going early on, it seemed like,” Anderson said of his counterpart. “He was getting a ton of swing and miss, curveball was good, keeping the ball down. I think we were able to hit a few mistakes, and three, four, five hitting those doubles, that kind of knocked him out.”
When Hendricks slowly walked off the field, the Braves had a 6-0 lead.
Meanwhile, Anderson tossed 6 ⅔ scoreless innings versus the Cubs in his best start of the season. Anderson turned in the first scoreless start of his season and the ninth of his career. He had allowed one earned run in three other outings this year.
Anderson gave up only three hits. He walked two batters and hit another, but struck out six. He dominated.
“It’s nice to get that lead early on and to be able to pitch with that lead, keep the defense involved,” he said.
The Braves lost the first two games in Chicago but teed off on Hendricks – again – to end on a positive note.
The Braves feasted on the softer part of their schedule, but they have an interesting homestand coming up: four games versus the Giants and three against the Dodgers, which will include Freddie Freeman’s return.
“It’s a tough stretch, but everybody goes through it,” Snitker said. “I think we did a good job in the last stretch of beating the teams you’re supposed to beat, and that’s not easy to do. That’s really hard to do.”
