Eight times the Braves have faced Paul Maholm, and never have they scored more than two runs against the left-hander. Not once.
Maholm is with the Chicago Cubs this season, doing the same thing against the Braves that he did previously with Pittsburgh. That is, pitching better against the Braves than he does against any other team.
He allowed one run and eight hits in six innings of a 5-1 Cubs win on Wednesday night at Turner Field, the fifth loss in seven games for the Braves. It dropped them to six games behind National League East leader Washington, which defeated San Francisco earlier Wednesday.
The Braves need a win Thursday to salvage a split of the four-game series and the 10-game homestand. They've lost five of nine on the homestand and open a three-game series at Philadelphia on Friday, the Braves' final games before the All-Star break.
Maholm (6-6) is 3-1 with a 1.36 ERA in eight starts against the Braves, including 2-0 with a 0.56 ERA in two this season. His career ERA against the Braves is less than half of his next-best against any other team.
Trailing 2-1 with two runners on in the sixth inning, the Braves looked as if they might tie the score when David Ross hit a two-out single to left field. But Alfonso Soriano, not known for defense, fielded the ball cleanly and fired a perfect throw to the plate to cut down Chipper Jones trying to score from second base.
Braves rookie Randall Delgado (4-9) pitched six solid innings before reliever Jonny Venters replaced him with a runner on in the seventh. Venters continued his alarming ineffectiveness, facing only three batters and giving up a run on a wild pitch and another on a Jeff Baker homer as the Cubs pushed the lead to 4-1.
Anthony Rizzo added an eighth-inning homer off Anthony Varvaro. Braves relievers have allowed 30 homers; only three major league bullpens had given up more than 30 before Wednesday.
Delgado was charged with seven hits, three runs and two walks in six-plus innings and was pulled after Darwin Barney's leadoff double in the seventh.
Venters induced one ground out, then threw a costly wild pitch to Baker, pinch-hitting for Maholm. Baker connected squarely with Venters' next pitch and deposited it in the left-field bleachers. There were plenty of boos for Venters then and again when he came off the field one ground out later, replaced by Chad Durbin with two outs.
Venters has a 6.08 ERA and .343 opponents' average in 31 appearances since May 1, with 34 hits allowed. He has allowed six homers in 23 2/3 innings.
Jones followed his 5-for-5 game Tuesday with a single in the first inning for his sixth consecutive hit. He had two hits Wednesday, and Braves leadoff man Michael Bourn had three hits and fell a home run shy of hitting for the cycle. Bourn had a first-inning single, a third-inning triple and a fifth-inning double.
The Cubs scored a run in the first when Starlin Castro raced home from third base after Ross threw out Rizzo trying to steal second.
Martin Prado singled to drive in Bourn with the tying run in the third, but the Cubs answered in the fourth with a Bryan LaHair homer for a 2-1 lead.
Delgado is 1-4 with a 3.14 ERA in his past seven starts at Turner Field, and the Braves scored one or no runs while he was in six of those seven games.
