A festive weekend for the Braves took a turn for the dour on Saturday night, as the Cubs interrupted the combination Bobby Cox/1991-reunion weekend with an 8-4 win at Turner Field to even the series.
Dan Uggla extended his hitting streak to 33 games, but the Braves saw their winning streak snapped at five after Uggla’s two-hit, one-homer night wasn’t enough to power the Braves past the Cubs.
Chicago’s dynamic young shortstop Starlin Castro went 4-for-5 with two RBIs and a run scored, giving the Cubs' faithful in a sold-out crowd of 49,781 plenty to cheer about. The Cubs put Friday's Carlos Zambrano fiasco behind them, and won for the 10th time in 13 games.
The Braves loaded the bases in the ninth to put a scare in the Cubs, but closer Carlos Marmol gave up only a sacrifice fly to Chipper Jones before finishing out the game.
Derek Lowe failed to build on the momentum he started with a quality start Monday in Florida, when he limited the Marlins to two runs in six innings to halt a three-game losing streak. Lowe gave up five runs on 10 hits in six innings to take his fifth loss in his past seven starts.
He is 7-11 with a 4.89 ERA on the season and has allowed five or more runs twice in his past three starts.
“That’s what stinks about right now, is I’ve pitched way worse and – granted there have been a lot of stinkers in there – but I felt way worse last year than I do now,” said Lowe, who went on to go 5-0 with a 1.17 ERA in September. “But you’re getting the same results. That’s the head-scratching thing.”
Lowe managed good damage control early after giving up consecutive hits with nobody out in the first and third innings while allowing only a run. But the Cubs broke it open with a two-out, two-run double by Carlos Pena in the fifth inning.
The Cubs tacked on two more in the sixth after Tyler Colvin led off with a triple and scored on a fielder’s choice.
“I made a poor pitch choice," Lowe said of the pitch to Pena. "I went into the game really not trying to throw Pena a lot of sinkers away. It’s clearly a ball he likes to hit and we had avoided it all the way up to that point. He put it down there, and I should have made a different choice."
On a night when the Braves honored their worst-to-first team of 1991, Uggla could relate.
From the worst hitter in the Braves' lineup the first three months of the season to the one who cannot be stopped, Uggla extended his hitting streak to 33 games with a scorching single to center in his first at-bat.
He homered in his second to give him five hits in his first five at-bats (with three home runs) in this series. Until he flew out in the seventh inning, Uggla had reached base in eight consecutive trips to the plate, dating to Wednesday and his final at-bat in Florida.
Uggla went 3-for-3 on Friday and was hit by a pitch. He went 2-for-3 on Saturday, was hit by a pitch again and walked. He has hit 15 home runs during the streak to give him 27 on the season.
“This is fun,” Uggla said. “I’m excited to come to the field every day. And I’m excited to compete. Once the game starts you throw it in the back of your head as best you can and leave it there. The game is going to take care of itself.”
Uggla is four games shy of Tommy Holmes’ Braves franchise record, which he set with a 37-game hitting streak for the Boston Braves in 1945. Uggla has raised his average from .173 on July 5 to .232.
His streak is the third to go more than 32 games since 1990, joining Jimmy Rollins' 38-gamer in 2005 and 2006, Luis Castillo’s 35-game streak in 2002 and Chase Utley’s 35-game streak in 2006.
“It doesn’t seem to be fazing him at all,” Braves catcher David Ross said. “I’d be a nervous wreck if it was me. He’s got a cool demeanor.”
The Braves racked up 12 hits, but scored only four runs while going 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position. Jones had two doubles to raise his all-time extra-base hit total to 1,002.
Jose Constanza went hitless for only the third time in 14 games since his major league call-up.
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