CHICAGO – The Braves are starting three rookie pitchers in a four-game series against the Cubs that ends Sunday, and one of them, Lucas Sims, found out Saturday what happens when you walk batters on a day when the wind is blowing out at Wrigley Field.
The Braves got home runs from Freddie Freeman, Matt Kemp and Rio Ruiz, two doubles and two RBIs from Nick Markakis, two walks and three hits from rookie Ozzie Albies and three hits from Dansby Swanson.
The Cubs got a second-inning grand slam from Rene Rivera and never trailed on the way to a 14-12 win, though the Braves scored eight runs in the last three innings and had the tying run at the plate when Freeman struck out against Cubs closer Wade Davis to end a three-run ninth.
Freeman, who also had an RBI double in the eighth inning, struck out in the ninth after Jace Peterson doubled to drive in a run against Davis and Albies worked a full-count RBI single.
“It’s still a loss — no matter how many hits you get, still didn’t win,” said Freeman, lamenting both another close loss and the weakened state of the left wrist that sidelined him for seven weeks this summer. “The wet newspaper I’ve been swinging, got it through a couple of times today and made contact. I needed to do it again in the last one and didn’t do it.
“I’m not really able to get through balls. I’ve got nothing left, really. I’m doing my best up there, but I needed to do a little bit better the last time. … (Bat speed) is completely gone.”
It was the sixth consecutive win for the defending World Series champions, who improved to a season-high 15 games over .500 at 75-60 while the Braves fell to a season-high 16 games under .500 at 59-75.
Sims (2-5) was charged with six hits, seven runs and four walks in three-plus innings, the first time he failed to pitch at least five innings in seven major league starts. He left after giving up a walk (to pitcher Jon Lester) and a single to start the five-run fourth inning.
“I just wasn’t around in the zone,” said Sims, who threw only 39 strikes in 73 pitches, and gave up the Rivera slam on an 0-2 hanging curveball. “Put guys on against that kind of ballclub, they were able to take advantage of it. …
“The curveball on the grand slam, it’s one that as soon as you throw it, you kind of just want to reel it back or hope that it’s so bad that maybe they don’t even swing. That’s on me. I set the tone. The guys did awesome to battle back. I didn’t get us off to a very good start and feel like that kind of cost us the ballgame.”
After Sims walked Lester gave up a Jon Jay single, he was replaced by Krol, who was just off the disabled list Friday. He walked the next batter, Kyle Schwarber, to load the bases, and one out later gave up a three-run triple to Anthony Rizzo.
Javier Baez doubled in another run and Jason Heyward added an RBI single off before the five-run inning was through.
It was a rough afternoon for several Braves pitchers, including Luke Jackson, who recorded three outs and was charged with one hit, three runs, one walk, a hit batter and two wild pitches. Jim Johnson also gave up a two-out, line-drive homer to Heyward in the eighth inning.
“Just can’t pitch like we did and expect to win any games,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “It wasn’t good from the get-go and wasn’t real good as we went along. It’s good that we came back and scored the runs, but we’re just making way, way too many mistakes.”
Despite hitting three homers in the first four innings, the Braves trailed by six after four innings and lost for the 30th time in 44 games. The slide began with a sweep by the Cubs on July 17-19 at SunTrust Park, right after the Braves’ 23-16 run improved their record to 45-45.
The Braves are 0-6 against the Cubs and need to win Sunday to avert a four-game series sweep and avoid going winless in a season against the Cubs for only the second time in the Atlanta era. The Braves were 0-6 against them in 2008.
Braves center fielder Ender Inciarte left the game after fouling a ball off his foot in the sixth inning, though he finished the at-bat, an inning-ending strikeout. Snitker said Inciarte was OK and should be ready to play Sunday.
After Rivera’s second-inning slam gave the Cubs a 4-0 lead, the Braves answered with three runs in the third on consecutive first-pitch homers from Freeman and Kemp following Albies’ leadoff single.
The Cubs got another run in the third on a Baez homer, and the Braves again reduced the lead to a single run when Ruiz led off the bottom of the fourth with his third major league homer and first against a left-hander.
Ruiz, recalled from Triple-A on Friday after Brandon Phillips was traded, has 29 home runs over two seasons, including 26 in Triple-A, and his homer off Lester was just the second of those 29 to come against a lefty. He has 19 homers this season (three in the majors) after hitting 10 in 2016, all in Triple-A.
But thoughts of the Braves hanging with the Cubs in a slugging contest looked doubtful after the Cubs cranked out a five-run fourth inning against Sims and reliever Krol, who gave up a three-run triple to Rizzo and RBI double to Baez.
For Sims, avoiding walks was a key to his improvement at Triple-A Gwinnett this season, where he had 132 strikeouts with 36 walks in 115 1/3 innings, including 40 strikeouts with six walks in 29 1/3 innings in July before he was called to the majors.
He’s not had the same success avoiding walks in the big leagues, and Saturday was a reminder of past problems that kept Sims in the minors longer than most anticipated.
Sims gave up a single and two walks to the first four batters in the second inning, including a Heyward walk to load the bases before the Rivera slam.
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