CHICAGO — Nothing that Derek Lowe did in the weeks leading to September 2010 portended his dominant pitching that month.
Not much of what the veteran Braves pitcher has done lately indicates he’s poised for another rousing September. But he's at least made some recent progress.
That’s the best positive spin anyone could put on Lowe, who gave up three runs in the second inning of a 3-2 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday night at Wrigley Field, which snapped the Braves’ six-game winning streak.
Home runs by Chipper Jones and Alex Gonzalez in the seventh and eighth innings made things interesting, but the Braves had just one other hit and lost for only the fifth time in their past 20 games. Jason Heyward struck out looking with a runner at first to end the game.
With 31 games left in the regular season, the Braves had a nine-game wild-card lead over San Francisco pending the outcome of the Giants' late game against San Diego.
"That’s the luxury of how well we’ve played up to this point," Jones said. "We lose a game like tonight, and it doesn’t really bother us. Because we are where we are. Now just file this one away and come back out tomorrow.”
It was the 13th home run of the season and 449th of his career for Jones, who is tied with Jeff Bagwell for 34th on the all-time list. The 39-year-old third baseman has hit .407 in his past 15 games, and has four homers and nine RBIs in his past 11.
Ater Lowe issued a leadoff walk in the second inning, Alfonso Soriano followed with a two-run homer. The Braves trailed 3-0 until Jones’ two-out homer in the seventh off Randy Wells (4-5), who limited the Braves to one run and two hits in 6-2/3 innings.
"Their guy pitched a good game," Lowe said, "and we can’t really complain about one loss the way we’ve been playing over the last six weeks. Just go to bed, wake up and come back and get another victory.”
Lowe (8-12, 4.63 ERA) was charged with three runs (two earned), four hits and four walks in seven innings, with six strikeouts.
“He was outstanding," Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "Gives up the home run to Soriano, and we kind of make him work a little extra there. I think he threw 40 pitches in that [second] inning. But for him to go seven innings and keep us in the ballgame, that was big. That was really, really big. He gets the loss but I think he deserves better.
"Hopefully this will carry on through the next start.”
It was the first time he lasted seven innings in more than three months, but the third time in his past four starts that Lowe allowed two earned runs or fewer. He pitched five scoreless innings against Arizona in his last start, after getting knocked around for five runs and 10 hits in six innings of an Aug. 13 loss against the Cubs and Wells.
“That’s obviously an embarrassing stat," Lowe said of his dearth of seven-inning stints. "But I’d rather be doing it now than back then. We’re winding down now, six or seven starts left, and you want to finish up strong where we put ourselves in a good spot.
"We’re still trying to catch Philly, but again, I don’t think this loss is going to stay with us very long with the way we’ve been playing.”
After the Cubs batted around in the second, Lowe faced two batters over the minimum in his last five innings. But that second inning was so ragged — errors by Dan Uggla and Jones, a balk and two walks by Lowe — that it got Lowe’s loathers busy again on in-game blogs and Twitter.
Some of them plead for the Braves to swap him out of the rotation in favor of one of the team's top pitching prospects, either Julio Teheran or Randall Delgado.
Nevermind that Lowe is the most accomplished postseason pitcher on the Braves roster, with more playoff experience than the rest of their pitchers combined. Or that he was a stunning 5-0 with a 1.17 ERA last September, winning National League pitcher of the month and playing a major role in getting the Braves back to the playoffs.
“The two-run homer by Soriano, combined with the shoddy inning of defense, did us in tonight," Jones said. "I thought we kind of beared down there in the last two innings and made a go of it. But you’re not going to muster too much against the back end of that bullpen. It’s pretty good.
“[Lowe] did what we needed him to do. Kept us in the game, gave us some innings. That’s very important. Regardless of whether he won or lost tonight, we needed him to give us innings."
If he'd gotten the kind of offensive and defensive support the Braves have provided most nights in recent weeks, Lowe pitched well enough to win. But the early hole he put them in didn't help.
Wells, who came in with a 5.84 ERA, has almost always pitched well against the Braves and did again Wednesday. He allowed two hits, one run and two walks in 6 2/3 innings, improving to 4-1 with a 2.70 ERA in six starts against them, including two wins in two weeks.
“All the credit goes to Wells," Jones said. "He had an outstanding changeup tonight. He made one mistake with it. I thought he pitched as good… Well, I can’t really say that because he had us no-hit until the seventh at our place [in 2009]. So I have seen him pitch that well."
The Cubs loaded the bases against reliever Scott Linebrink in the eighth on a bunt single, a hit batter and a walk. But Jones caught Geovany Soto’s line drive and alertly dove to touch third base before Carlos Pena could make it back. The unassisted double play ended the inning.
Uggla was hit by a Marmol pitch to start the Braves' ninth. After Freddie Freeman struck out and Jones grounded into a force at second, Heyward struck out looking at a full-count slider.
