Braves Blast the Cubs as Late Spring Swoon Continues

Dustin Riese - Senior Writer - 13 hours ago

MESA - Either the Chicago Cubs are getting sick of playing Spring ball, or they forgot how to play baseball. Whatever is going on needs to be fixed in a hurry, as this team has looked drastically different since returning from Japan, and not in a good way.

Already on a three-game losing streak to close out Cactus League play, five games if you add in their series with the Dodgers, the Cubs have picked the worst time to play their worst baseball of the Spring, as the regular season is less than three days away. Monday was more of the same, as the Atlanta Braves came to Sloan Park for the first time in their history and handed the Cubs a 13-4 loss.

That has been the trend since leaving for Japan, as the offense has struggled to get much going while the pitching has been subpar at best. Monday was a different approach for Craig Counsell, as he elected to go with Brad Keller as his starter in what was considered an opener type of game. The Cubs went through 10 different starting pitchers, which is never good.

Keller was one of the few pitchers to have a scoreless outing, but when you look at how dominant he was in his innings of work, you see that he had the best outing of all the pitchers. Then came Ryan Pressly and the rest of the Cubs' arms, as that was the beginning of the end for what looked to be a competitive game early.

Pressly gave up the Cubs' first two runs of the game, with Drake Baldwin opening the scoring with an RBI knock and a Jarred Kelenic RBI grounder, leading to a 2-0 Braves lead. The Cubs didn't waste any time responding in the bottom of the second as the Carson Kelly two-out single kept the inning alive, followed by another Gage Workman homer to make this a 2-2 game.

Workman continues to be the biggest topic of conversation for the Cubs as they have one more game to decide on whether or not he will make the opening-day roster. Following his homer, it was all downhill from there as the Braves ripped off nine unanswered runs to break the game open and never looked back.

That all started with a pair of runs in the third, with Marcell Ozuna picking up the go-ahead RBI single to make things 3-2 with a wild pitch pushing the Braves lead to 4-2. It was the fifth inning when the Braves put the game away for good as they broke the game open with a massive six-run inning that was all started by a two-run Matt Olson homer, which proved to be the game-winning hit.

His homer was answered by an Ozuna solo shot to go back to back with Ozzie Albies adding a third homer two hitters later to push the lead to 8-2. Following a trio of walks from Cayne Ueckert to load the bases, Cal Conley capped off the six-run frame with an RBI knock as the Braves pushed the lead to 10-2.

Trailing 11-2 in the sixth after the Braves added another run in the top half of the inning, the Cubs offense was looking to at the very least show some fight. A one-out walk from Jonathon Long was a good start, as was the Dixon Machado single to put a pair of runners on with one out. That set the stage for Kelly, who connected for his fourth double of the Spring and second hit of the game to clear the bases as the Cubs pulled within 11-4.

That was as close as their offense would get as the Braves tacked on two more runs in the seventh to push the lead to 13-4 while the Cubs offense was about to prove why they still have more questions than answers. If one hit-by pitch to Felix Stevens to lead off the seventh wasn't good enough, why not make it two as Greg Allen followed the hit-by pitch with one of his own to put a pair of runners on with no outs?

Three hitters later, the inning was over, as the Cubs were again turned away without the big hit. One inning later, it was the same scenario: a two-out Reese McGuire single was followed by a Chase Strumpf walk, only to have the offense turned away empty again. Those were the final baserunners of the night for Chicago, as they will now head into their final Spring game of the season looking to end a six-game skid.

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