Alex Bregman’s solo homer is the Chicago Cubs’ lone hit in a 5-2 loss to the Atlanta Braves
ATLANTA — The sequence happened so quickly, Colin Rea was left wondering if he should have stepped off the mound at some point for a reset to gather himself. Austin Riley’s tying home run to open the fifth inning Tuesday night at Truist Park kick-started a four-run Atlanta Braves rally as the game got away from Rea in a span of only 11 pitches in the Chicago Cubs’ 5-2 loss. Riley bested a sinker that Rea put up and in on the hands for the solo homer.
It was a tip-the-cap kind of pitch; Rea put the ball where he wanted. The Braves didn’t stop there, though. Dominic Smith followed with a first-pitch single off Rea, who recovered to force Ha-Seong Kim to pop up for the first out.
The inning didn’t get any easier for Rea. In a battle against Mike Yastrzemski, he tried to put the lefty away with a full-count elevated fastball that was fouled off. Rea went to his slider and uncorked a hanger over the plate that Yastrzemski hit for a no-doubt, two-run homer.
A Drake Baldwin double and an Ozzie Albies walk ended Rea’s night before he could get out of the fifth. “I just felt like in that inning, we didn’t really get them off balance much,” Rea said. “They had some pretty comfortable swings.
“When they’re putting good swings on good pitches, sometimes it can make it tough to still trust it and still go after them. And sometimes you think you’ve got to make a better pitch, or like a perfect pitch, and you don’t necessarily have to do that. You just have to continue to execute.