Atlanta, GA – After the Atlanta Braves rallied in the eighth, the Upton brothers brought them home in the ninth.
B.J. Upton homered off Carlos Marmol to tie the contest, and brother Justin crushed his second homer of the game two batters later to cap the comeback and give the Braves a 6-5 win over the Chicago Cubs on Saturday.
Atlanta trailed 5-1 after seven innings, but scored three runs in the eighth. Eric O'Flaherty (1-0) picked up the win with a scoreless top of the ninth.
Marmol (0-1) recorded just a single out in the ninth.
"It's tough. I've been through it," said Cubs starter Carlos Villanueva, who was in line for the win before Marmol blew the save. "I just hope he (Marmol) understands that we've only had five games."
B.J. Upton was having a rough start to his Braves career, coming into the contest 0-for-14 with nine strikeouts. However, he broke out of the slump on Saturday with two hits, and his game-tying homer set the stage for Justin Upton's game winner.
"I mean it was just a great team effort," said B.J. Upton. "We're down late in the game and we stayed in it, piece together that eighth inning and came back and got it done in the ninth."
Justin Upton had three hits and delivered a solo homer in the first, and his leadoff double in the eighth sparked a three-run inning to help the Braves cut their deficit to 5-4.
Freeman drove him home on a ground ball to right and Dan Uggla followed with a single before Kyuji Fujikawa walked Gerald Laird to load the bases. Ramiro Pena then came through with a two-run single to cut the Cubs' lead to one.
Chicago had the bases loaded with no one out in the top half of the frame, but were unable to score. The Cubs had a runner in scoring position in the ninth as well, but stranded Welington Castillo at second when Alberto Gonzalez struck out to end the inning.
Nate Schierholtz gave the Cubs a 1-0 lead in the first after he drove home David DeJesus with a two-out single. DeJesus reached on a double when his line drive into right was mishandled by Jason Heyward.
After Justin Upton's solo homer in the bottom half tied the game, the Braves stranded a runner on base in each of the next six innings.
The Cubs jumped back in front on Luis Valbuena's solo homer in the fourth and extended their edge to 5-1 in the fifth, picking up two runs on Anthony Rizzo's homer to right. Two batters later, Schierholtz doubled and then came around to score on Castillo's single to center.
Villanueva made his Cubs debut and pitched well, allowing just one run on six hits in 6 2/3 innings. He also had six strikeouts.
Julio Teheran had a successful spring for the Braves, but it didn't translate into his first start of the season. In five innings pitched, he gave up five runs on eight hits.
Game Notes
The Braves are 4-1 for the first time since 2009, when they began 5-1 ... The Cubs had managed just 16 hits through their first four games, but had 13 on Saturday ... Atlanta will go for the series sweep on Sunday. The Braves will send Tim Hudson to the mound and Chicago will counter with Jeff Samardzija.
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