CHICAGO – Until Thursday, Braves rookie Sean Newcomb never pitched at Wrigley Field, a treacherous place for pitchers when the wind is blowing out.
The baseball gods were kind enough not to make him cope with both a challenging Cubs lineup and homer-assisting breezes, but winds blowing in could do only so much to help Newcomb and the Braves, especially when their bullpen faltered quickly.
Newcomb wiggled out of trouble repeatedly in his five innings but left with a 3-1 deficit, and Jason Motte promptly gave up a two-run homer upon entering in the sixth inning to all but settle matters for the Cubs in a 6-2 win Thursday night to open a four-game series on a cool night before a nearly packed house at Wrigley.
The Braves got a pinch-hit homer from Lane Adams in the seventh inning, but it came with bases empty and they still trailed 5-2. It was the majors-leading ninth pinch-hit homer for the Braves, one shy of the Atlanta franchise record.
The Cubs tacked on a run in the eighth against reliever Matt Wisler after John Jay’s leadoff triple.
Newcomb (2-8) needed 101 pitches to get through five busy innings, allowing eight hits and three runs (two earned) with three walks and seven strikeouts.
“He bent but didn’t break,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “I think most of the hits were two-strike hits and off-speed pitches. They didn’t do much with his fastball and he couldn’t bury a breaking ball when he needed to, and he hung a change-up. But that being said, he was right there in the game.
“He battles. He battles, he works, he never gives in, and he limited damage when he got in trouble.”
Newcomb gave up two runs in the first inning on three hits and a walk, then gave up a run on a bases-loaded walk in the third inning, a run that was unearned after an error by third baseman Jace Peterson.
Peterson replaced Brandon Phillips, a late scratch after the Braves and Angels worked out a trade that awaited the approval of Phillips, who granted that approval after talking it over with family members during phone calls in the clubhouse while the game was being played.
The Cubs went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position in five innings against Newcomb and had a few hard-hit fly balls held up by the wind.
“I didn’t pitch knowing that the wind was blowing in, but it definitely saved me on a couple of deep fly balls or balls that hit the wall,” Newcomb said.
But Motte, a former Cardinals closer with plenty of experience at Wrigley, threw a fat 0-2 sinker to Bryant that was hit so hard, the wind was no match for it in its trajectory to the left-center field seats.
Motte walked the second batter he faced, Ben Zobrist, then gave up the homer that made Bryant the first player in Cubs franchise history to hit at least 25 homers in each of his first three major league seasons. It also gave the defending World Series champions a 5-1 lead on the way to their fifth straight win and 13th in 18 games.
The Cubs have scored a majors-leading 275 runs since the All-Star break and outscored their opponents by 93 runs, also the major league leader.
Adams’ homer was his second this season and the second of his career and it came in his first plate appearance at Wrigley Field. He homered on a full-count change-up from Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks with two out in the seventh, the last pitch of the night for Hendricks (6-4).
Hendricks was charged with five hits, two runs (one earned) and three walks with five strikeouts.
The Braves trailed 3-0 before getting an unearned run in the fifth after Dansby Swanson reached on an error and scored on Ozzie Albies’ two-out single. Albies was 2-for-3 with a walk and two singles, and he’s hit .392 (20-for-51) in his past 13 games after hitting .170 in his first 14 games upon being called to the majors for the first time this month.
The Braves, despite a doubleheader road sweep of the Phillies on Wednesday, have a National League-worst 14-28 record going back to July 17, a slide that began the day after they improved their record to .500 at 45-45.
