Braves vs. Cubs series recap: Close, but no cigar. Again.

The Atlanta Braves have been searching for a series win ever since that great series in Miami where they just throttled the Marlins for two games. Outside of that, they’ve been on a gauntlet that’s included a trip to Philadelphia, a visit to Wrigley Field, Big Dumper coming to town and then a visit from Wrigley Field’s tenants. The Chicago Cubs are in search of locking down a Postseason spot so.if the Braves were going to play spoiler, they’d have to be on their A-game.

As usual, though, this was a case of the Braves doing enough to stay competitive but not enough to be consistent enough to come out as winners. The search for a series win in September continues and now it’s time to jump right into talking about how this past series against Chicago went. Let’s get into it, y’all.

It would’ve been understandable to expect that the Cubs would have the pitching advantage in this one since they had Shota Imanaga going while the Braves were countering with Bryce Elder. Fortunately, Elder has actually been in pretty good form lately — after getting blown up for eight runs by the White Sox on August 19, the most runs that Elder had given up in a start since then was two and that came against the Mets in his very next outing.

He kept the Phillies quiet during his outing after that and them he put on a very creditable performance against the Cubs in Wrigley Field. As it turned out, Elder was indeed up for the task of doing it twice. He pitched into the seventh inning and struck out six while only giving up one run for the second straight start against the Cubs. Go figure.

Meanwhile, Atlanta got off to a fast start at the plate in this one and this ended up being the pivotal inning in the game since Elder was once again impressive. A two-out rally that started with Ozzie Albies hitting a homer included an RBI double from Drake Baldwin and then an RBI single from Ronald Acuña Jr. (which has been pretty rare with the slump he’s been in lately). Matt Olson added an insurance solo homer (that went DEEP) way later on in the eighth inning and the Braves ended up winning somewhat comfortably in order to open up the series.

We were all witness to a shocking development before this game had even begun: Spencer Strider was completely clean shaven. Now granted, what he does with his facial hair is of nobody’s concern but it was certainly a bit weird to tune in on Sunday and see the guy with a new look. While Strider’s first inning performance looked to be a bit ominous, he ended up mitigating a bases-loaded, nobody out situation and only gave up one more run from that point forward while striking out eight batters. It was certainly an improvement for Strider and this now makes it three straight solid starts after having that rough patch last month.

Strider needed to be on his game because the Braves had a devil of a time dealing with rookie starter Cade Horton. Horton only struck out two batters but he pitched into the seventh inning while only giving up four hits and not walking a single batter.

Once both starters were out, the Braves eventually gave Alexis Díaz his Atlanta debut and. it did not go well. The only silver lining is that Díaz didn’t give up a hit — outside of that, he somehow managed to give up four runs (three earned) despite that. Díaz walked three batters and hit Pete Crow-Armstrong and all four of those runners ended up coming around to score. Connor Seabold gave up the hit that broke the game open for the Cubs and it didn’t help matters that Nacho Alvarez Jr. made a meal out of fielding the throw from center. All of this happened in the eighth inning, which meant it was far too late for Atlanta to put up serious resistance in order to prevent Chicago from tying up the series.

Chris Sale got the ball for this one and as usual, the Braves always like their chances when he’s on the mound. He’s been excellent while healthy and the good news is that the Braves got yet another solid start out of their veteran star. Sale struck out nine batters over the five innings he spent on the mound for Wednesday’s contest. It was a solid effort from Sale, even though he wasn’t spectacular or dominant like we’ve grown used to seeing him be as of late.

Unfortunately, he probably needed to be excellent because the Braves were unable to muster up enough offense against Jameson Taillon and the rest of CHicago’s pitching staff in order to make a difference. Chris Sale gave up three runs in this one, as a home run from Carson Kelly, an RBI double from Justin Turner and a sacrifice fly from Seiya Suzuki ended up being all the offense that the Cubs would need in this one.

The Braves had their chances (as usual) as Nacho Alvarez Jr. delivered an RBI double to give the Braves the lead early on and then Matt Olson hit a sacrifice fly to bring them to within one run. However, the Braves were unable to capitalize on all of their chances (as usual) and as such, the Braves were eventually doomed to their 34th one-run loss of the season. I don’t think that they’re going to catch the 1968 White Sox for 44 one-run losses in a single season but boy, they are really giving it the ol’ college try!

There’s not much else to say in that regard. The Braves have once again played a playoff-caliber team pretty tough but once again came up short in the situations where it mattered the most. The first game was certainly encouraging but then we got the usual slip-up in the second game before the usual (and now dreaded) one-run loss came in to drop the hammer on any hopes that the Braves had of pulling off a series win. The loss on Wednesday also made it 81 losses on the season, which means that Atlanta is now one loss away from suffering their first losing season since 2017. It’s been a certainty for a while now but it’s still going to be jarring to see it actually happen — and with plenty of time to spare here in September, no less.

As usual, the only silver lining to find here is the fact that the Braves are still solidly in position to have Top-5 odds for the first overall pick in next season’s MLB Draft Lottery. Even if they don’t win the whole thing, getting a Top-5 pick (and the bonus pool money that comes along with that) could do Atlanta’s farm system a lot of good at a time where they really need it. It’s not necessarily what anybody wanted for this Braves team back when the season got underway in March but at this point, it’s really all that the Braves have. The offseason will surely be an interesting one but for now, they’ve got to continue playing out the string against some tough customers, starting with the Astros this weekend.