Chicago Cubs (Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)
Despite jumping out to a 3-0 lead, the Chicago Cubs needed extra innings to take Game 2 from the Atlanta Braves.
The Chicago Cubs couldn’t hold a 3-1 lead in the eighth inning but won 6-3 in extra innings in Game 2 of the series with the Atlanta Braves. There are four major takeaways from the contest:
1. Patient At-Bats
Going from Tuesday’s series opener into Game 2 on Wednesday, the Cubs flipped the script in terms of their approach at the plate. In Game 1, the Cubs drew zero walks and had just one at-bat go to a 3-2 count.
On Wednesday, the northsiders sat back and allowed Charlie Morton to do the work for them. The Braves starter threw just 38-of-70 pitches for strikes and was chased after 2.1 innings.
After Patrick Wisdom’s one-out walk and Jason Heyward’s single into right field in the second inning, Nick Madrigal opened the scoring with an RBI groundout to give the Cubs the early 1-0 advantage.
2. Suzuki stays red-hot
Seiya Suzuki had perhaps the at-bat of the game, seeing ten pitches before sending a double off the top of the wall in left-center to make it a 2-0 game in the third inning. Suzuki’s fifth double of the year knocked in Rafael Ortega, who hit a ground-rule double in the previous at-bat.
The Cubs’ right fielder tallied his second hit of the night in the fourth inning, an opposite-field single. Suzuki went 2-for-5 on Wednesday and is 7-for-22 (.318) over his last five games.
3. Bullpen day was perfect until…
Mark Leiter Jr. opened the game and he gave the visitors two strong innings, yielding only two hits and one walk. In the second inning, he escaped a bases-loaded jam to keep the Braves off the scoreboard.
Keegan Thompson didn’t have his best outing, tossing 3.0 innings of three-hit ball. He struck out three but also walked two and allowed one run. Scott Effross and Chris Martin followed, each with unblemished innings.
However, Mychal Givens ran into trouble after collecting the first two outs in the eighth inning. After allowing a single, a double, and a walk to load the bases, Dansby Swanson’s two-run single deposited into right field evened the score at three runs apiece.
4. Cubs re-take the lead for good
With Ian Happ starting the tenth inning on second base, Willson Contreras’s leadoff RBI double in the top half saw the Cubs re-take the lead. Statcast clocked Contreras’s double at 111.6 mph off the bat.