Ian Happ homered and five pitchers combined to throw a five-hit shutout on Thursday as the visiting Chicago Cubs avoided a sweep with their 2-0 victory over the Atlanta Braves.
Ben Brown started and tossed four innings for the Cubs, striking out seven and walking one while allowing just one hit. Hoby Milner (1-0) threw two scoreless frames before Daniel Palencia earned his third save of the year for the Cubs, who snapped a season-long four-game losing streak.
Chris Sale (6-3) threw six innings, allowing one unearned run on five hits, striking out eight and walking a pair for the Braves, who had their four-game winning streak snapped.
Milner replaced Brown in the fifth after 65 pitches. The first Chicago reliever tossed a perfect fifth, including an inning-ending strikeout of Mike Yasztremski.
In the sixth, Happ worked a leadoff walk before Atlanta shortstop Ha-Seong Kim’s throwing error on Seiya Suzuki’s grounder put runners on the corners.
Matt Shaw then grounded into an RBI force out to drive in the game’s first run. Sale struck out Michael Busch and Dansby Swanson to end the inning.
Reynaldo Lopez took over in the seventh, working around a one-out walk to preserve the one-run deficit.
Phil Maton entered in the seventh for Chicago, issuing a two-out single to Dominic Smith in an otherwise clean frame.
Happ’s 10th homer of the year off Lopez doubled the lead in the eighth.
Chicago’s pitching staff combined for 13 strikeouts against one walk to limit the Braves’ league-leading scoring offense. Atlanta had a hit in each of the final three innings, but had multiple baserunners just once, in the second inning.
The Braves were hitless in six at-bats with runners in scoring position and stranded seven runners as they were shut out for the second time this season and the first time in over a month.
