Braves sweep Cubs, clinch home field advantage throughout entire MLB playoffs
By Chris Turner
If the Atlanta Braves can make another deep run in the MLB playoffs, Truist Park is set to get a lot of airtime this October.
With a series sweep over the Chicago Cubs, the Braves have clinched home-field advantage throughout the entire postseason, holding the tiebreaker over the 100-win Baltimore Orioles in the American League.
Atlanta dispatched Chicago on Thursday night with a score of 5-3, moving to 103-56 on the year while the Cubs drop to 82-77 after the loss. As of this writing, they are now a 0.5 game behind the Miami Marlins for the final NL wild card.
Chicago took an early lead after Mike Tauchman narrowly avoided Travis d'Arnaud's tag on a close plate at the plate on ground ball to Austin Riley.
The Braves immediately responded with Matt Olson hitting his 54th home run, a two-run blast, to put Atlanta in front in the bottom of the first at 2-1. The two RBIs make Olson the franchise record-holder for most RBIs in a single Braves season, passing Eddie Matthews and reaching 136 RBIs this year.
Atlanta doubled their score the following inning with Michael Harris II doubling to center, followed by Ronald Acuña Jr. dropping a single into right to make it 4-1 for the Braves. Acuña has now extended his hitting streak to 12 games.
While the offense strung together some hits to put the Braves ahead, the pitching staff did its part to keep the Cubs in check. AJ Smith-Shawver and Kyle Wright combined to throw six innings, allowing just two runs, two walks, while striking out six batters.
Seiya Suzuki was able to bring Chicago closer with an RBI double and single in the 6th and 8th inning, respectively, trimming the deficit to two. The Braves escaped with the lead by forcing Dansby Swanson to ground into a double play with one out to preserve the 5-3 lead. Raisel Iglesias would then set down the side in order to seal the win for the Braves.
Atlanta's final regular season series starts tomorrow with the Washington Nationals coming to Truist Park for three games. First pitch is scheduled for 7:20 p.m. ET.