The 2018 NL East banner was hung and the crowd was loud as the Atlanta Braves played its home opener in the 2019 season in game one of a three-game series vs the Chicago Cubs.
The fun and excitement continued until the last out for Atlanta Braves fans.
Two teams who both needed a early season win and also two teams who both had miserable outings from each’s bullpens the opening weekend met in Suntrust Park’s 2019 debut Monday night in Atlanta.
It’s safe to say the Cubs would rather forget the game ever happened as it started off bad and never really got better. Let’s look at some of the highlights from the first Braves win of the year.
Sean Newcomb started off the first inning well, but the story of the first was the Braves bats and the Cubs defense.
Chicago left fielder Mike Zagunis dropped an Ender Inciarte foul ball and the very next pitch Ender hit one about four rows deep in the right-field seats.
Josh Donaldson then scored on a bad Javy Baez throw on a double-play attempt and Brian McCann made it 4-0 on the first pitch he saw back in Atlanta, which came again after another bad Cubs defensive play by Zagunis.
Newcomb found some trouble in the second but got Heyward to ground into a double-play and Zagunis to strikeout looking. Again in the third, Newcomb had trouble throwing strikes but stranded the bases loaded preserving the 4-0 lead.
It was then time for Ronald Acuna to create more magic as he cranked his first home run of the young season on a liner to left field.
The Cubs made another error in the third, but no more runs allowed.
After a leadoff single to start the fifth by Rizzo, Newcomb was pulled meaning he wouldn’t get the win.
The only sore spot in this game was probably again the lack of strikes thrown by the Braves lefty.
In the bottom of the fifth with the bases loaded, Dansby hit a rocket off the glove of Kyle Hendricks, which scored one, but another Cubs error led to another Braves run making the score 7-0.
The Braves would go on to add another run in the bottom of the sixth with an Ozzie Albies RBI single which comes again after another Cubs error. The six errors by the Cubs was the first time in 13 years that had happened.
After all that, the bullpens kind of took over and did their respective job for the most parts. It was a nice sight for the Braves bullpen quartet of Wes Parsons, Jesse Biddle, Chad Sobotka, and Arodys Vizcaino to come in and throw strikes and get outs.
All in all, it was a great night for the Atlanta Braves and hopefully the beginning of a winning streak.