CHICAGO – At some point, the streak had to end.
Over the past two weeks, the Braves blazed through their schedule, ripping through pitching staffs as they overmatched lesser opponents. They won games – many of them easily – against clubs they were supposed to beat.
Their 14-game win streak ended Friday, when they lost to the Cubs 1-0 at Wrigley Field. It was their first loss in June, and the streak was the franchise’s second-longest win streak since 1900.
“The first loss in June is good,” Matt Olson said, “when you’re in the middle of the month.”
But the story is this: The Braves, now 37-28, completely turned around their season during this incredible run. When it began, they were 10.5 games back of the Mets in the NL East. They climbed to within five games of New York.
And just like that, the season has started for the defending World Series champions. They have pulled themselves off the mat and now look like the team they were projected to be entering spring training.
Had the Braves won this series opener versus the Cubs, they would have tied the franchise’s post-1900 record win streak of 15 games, set by the 2000 club. The franchise’s overall record belongs to the 1891 Boston Beaneaters, who won 18 in a row.
“That’s really good,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said of the streak. “You got to do a lot of things right, consistently, for a long time to be able to do that, because a game like this can come around at any point in time at anybody you play. Right now, we got to go back to winning tomorrow, trying to put ourselves in a chance to win a series.”
A.J. Minter entered a scoreless game to pitch the bottom of the eighth inning. He walked Jonathan Villar to begin the inning. Villar advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt and stole third base, which put him in position for the game’s biggest play to that point.
Christopher Morel hit a fly ball to center field. The wind pushed it back toward the infield, which allowed Michael Harris, who has a cannon, to fire a strike home. The throw was on the money, but Villar barely beat it and slid past catcher Travis d’Arnaud.
The Cubs took a 1-0 lead. Before this, Chicago had lost 10 games in a row. According to Elias Sports Bureau, the last time a team with a single-season winning streak of at least 14 games faced an opponent with a double-digit losing streak in a single season was in 1953, when the New York Yankees and the St. Louis Browns played.
In the top of the ninth, Olson drew a one-out walk before Travis d’Arnaud was hit by a pitch. Adam Duvall drew a two-out walk to load the bases. Orlando Arcia grounded out to end it.
Here’s how good the Braves had been: Before Friday’s eighth inning, the last time they trailed was in the fifth inning of last Saturday’s game versus the Pirates. After they took the lead in the seventh inning of that game, they went 43 innings without trailing in a game until Villar scored.
The Braves’ streak was characterized by their red-hot offense. Everyone has been hitting. But on a windy afternoon at Wrigley Field – ask Ronald Acuña, who saw a hard-hit ball die in center field in the eighth inning – the pitchers dueled. The Braves collected only two hits.
They could have had at least two home runs. The wind affected this game. Acuña’s ball looked like it could’ve gone out, as did others.
“You can’t blame the wind because that’s always going to be a part here, but our game is to get the ball in the air,” Snitker said. “It kind of got beat back today.”
Friday marked Morton’s second scoreless start of the season. And the other time, against Milwaukee, he went only five innings. He went seven versus the Cubs, and only allowed three hits while striking out nine and walking none.
This time, he dominated. He retired the first eight Cubs he faced, and struck out six of them. Overall, he tossed three 1-2-3 frames. He didn’t run into much trouble.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Willson Contreras, brother of Braves catcher William Contreras, hit a rocket off Morton. Luckily, he didn’t hit the ball high enough and it bounced hard off the wall, which made it a single instead of a home run. Morton then hit a batter. But he escaped the inning.
Before that eighth inning, Minter hadn’t allowed an earned run since April 24, when he surrendered two.
“It’s hard to walk a leadoff hitter in a game like that, that’s the main thing,” Snitker said. “He’s been unbelievable.”
Chicago’s Keegan Thompson nearly matched Morton. He shut out the Braves over six innings and struck out a career high nine batters. The Braves didn’t chase him until Olson drew a leadoff walk to begin the seventh inning.
Nothing eventually came of that as Arcia, with two men on base, struck out to end the inning. They stranded the tying run on third two innings later.
The win streak is over, but it appears the season has just begun.
“I feel like we’re playing the way we’re capable of playing right now,” Snitker said. “We’ve just got to keep coming out and doing what we’ve been doing. When we do that, we’re a pretty good club.”
