The Chicago Cubs again found themselves holding a lead late against the Atlanta Braves.
And again they were on the wrong end of a vital game Wednesday at Truist Park, losing 6-5 in 10 innings after twice failing to maintain a one-run lead in the ninth and 10th innings.
Marcell Ozuna slugged the tying solo home run off Mark Leiter Jr. with one out in the ninth in the right-handed reliever’s first appearance in a week. José Cuas cleaned up the traffic in relief of Leiter, retiring both Braves batters to strand the winning run in scoring position.
The Cubs reclaimed the lead in the 10th on Ian Happ’s sacrifice fly, but their one-run lead didn’t hold. Ronald Acuña Jr. tied it with an RBI single, swiped second base for his 70th stolen base of the year, and scored on Ozzie Albies’ single off Daniel Palencia to end it.
“We’ve got to do some little things a little bit better,” manager David Ross said. “Trying to get runners in from third with less than two outs hasn’t been our strength this month. Guys are laying it all out there. Just a really good team. We’ve got to figure out a way to win a baseball game.”
The Cubs (82-76) are tied with the Miami Marlins for the third and final National League wild-card spot entering Thursday, but they are essentially on the outside of playoff position because Miami owns the tiebreaker. The Cubs turn to Marcus Stroman in Thursday’s series final to prevent a sweep in Atlanta.
“We believe in the group, and we’ve got four games left to get this thing done,” Happ said. “We’re still tied for the last spot, we’re still in it. Everybody in this clubhouse believes in that.
“We were 10 games under and really far out of it at one point so to be in this spot isn’t too bad.”
Wednesday’s painful ending marked the Cubs’ fifth loss after leading in the eighth inning or later during September, tying for their most such losses in a month over the franchise’s last 50 seasons (June 1991 and September 1992), according to ESPN Stats & Info.
Since his move to the bullpen in mid-August, Drew Smyly steadily earned manager David Ross’ trust in high-leverage spots. Ross went to Smyly with two runners on and nobody out in the seventh following Nico Hoerner’s throwing error. Hoerner tried to make a backhanded toss to Dansby Swanson at second base, but the high throw allowed a run to score and runners at first and second base to reach safely to trim the Cubs’ lead to 3-2.
“The outs that we left on the field, both tonight and yesterday defensively, obviously those sting,” Hoerner said. “But as an offense even though we did score some runs tonight those middle innings we felt like as a group we could have put some more up there. But obviously those are both games that can go either way.”
The error sequence ended Jameson Taillon’s final regular-season start, but Smyly ensured the game did not get away from the Cubs in that situation. Smyly retired the next three Atlanta hitters — Michael Harris II (ground out), Sean Murphy (strikeout) and Kevin Pillar (pop out) — to escape with the Cubs’ one-run lead intact.
Taillon had been on cruise control most of the night. He held the explosive Braves offense to two runs on three hits, including a home run by Albies that gave Atlanta a first-inning lead. Albies has torched the Cubs throughout his seven years in Atlanta. He brought a .408/.462/.733 career slash line against the Cubs into Wednesday’s game.
After a dreadful first three months to his Cubs career, Taillon posted a 3.53 ERA over his final 15 starts (86 2/3 innings).
“I feel like it just took me a little while to settle in here and I was searching for some things on my own delivery-wise and pitch-package-wise and I feel like we got to a point with the pitching department, with the catchers where we all got really comfortable with each other and we went through the mud together and then we made it out on the other side, and we learned a lot about each other,” Taillon said. “I don’t want to say performance-wise I feel great about it. It is what it is. But I feel like results-wise I’m really happy that we got to (that) place.”
The Cubs caught a break to tie the game in the second. A ball was clearly fouled off Jeimer Candelario’s bat, but home plate umpire Shane Livensparger missed it and while the play was live Cody Bellinger scored from third. The umpires met to discuss it, but the call stood as a passed ball and the run scored. The play could not be reviewed. Braves manager Brian Snitker was ejected for arguing the call.
Home runs by Mike Tauchman, his first since Aug. 8, and Happ in the third inning off Braves starter Darius Vines had originally put the Cubs ahead 3-1.
Twelve of their 25 games in September have been decided by two runs or fewer. That weight has fallen on the bullpen while the offense hasn’t provided many blowout opportunities to save their top arms, especially with 14 games this month against wild-card contenders. The Cubs know where their postseason chances stand. They no longer control their own playoff future.
“Were playing close games, we’re not getting blown out, we’re not completely out of these things,” Happ said. “Sometimes that’s really hard when you’re in a bunch of them and it doesn’t get done. But we’ve been in all these games, playing really good baseball. A lot of stuff is not going our way. But that doesn’t mean you’re going to stop playing.”
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