Cubs stop Uggla’s hitting streak
ATLANTA — The Chicago Cubs stopped Dan Uggla’s 33-game hitting streak and rallied from a four-run deficit to beat the Atlanta Braves 6-5 on Sunday.
The Braves led 4-0 through five innings and 5-4 through six before Carlos Pena’s two-run homer in the seventh.
Uggla’s streak was the longest in the majors in five years. He was 0-for-3 with an RBI.
His best chance to extend the streak came in the fifth. Second baseman Darwin Barney made a diving catch of Uggla’s fly ball in shallow right field.
Uggla grounded out to shortstop against Jeff Samardzija in the seventh in his final at-bat. He didn’t come up in the ninth, when Carlos Marmol earned his 28th save.
Marmol walked Michael Bourn, who had three hits, with two outs in the ninth. Bourn stole second base but Martin Prado popped out to third baseman Aramis Ramirez to end the game. If he had reached, Uggla would have been on deck.
His teammates patted him on the back and hugged him in the dugout after the game.
The Cubs have won 11 of 14 and four straight series for the first time since Sept. 9-21, 2008. They have won 10 of their last 14 games.
Uggla’s streak was the longest in the majors since 2006, when Philadelphia’s Chase Utley had a 35-game streak. Philadelphia’s Jimmy Rollins had a 38-game streak that began in 2005 and carried through the start of 2006.
Uggla streak passed Rico Carty’s 31-game streak in 1970 as the longest in Atlanta Braves history. The franchise record is 37 games by Tommy Holmes for the 1945 Boston Braves.
Throwing errors by Cubs pitchers Matt Garza and John Grabow in the first and sixth innings, led to Atlanta runs.
Atlanta took a 5-4 lead in the sixth when Jason Heyward singled off Grabow (3-0), stole second and scored on Grabow’s wild throw to first on a grounder by Alex Gonzalez.
The Cubs answered in the seventh when Darwin Barney singled and scored on Pena’s 23rd homer to right field off Eric O’Flaherty (1-4).
Bourn singled in the first and moved to third when Garza fielded Prado’s soft grounder and threw high to second for an error. Bourn scored on Uggla’s fly ball to left.
Garza’s six errors lead all pitchers in the majors, according to STATS LLC. The six errors match his total from his first five seasons in the majors.
The Braves added two runs in the second on RBI singles by Bourn and Prado and stretched the lead to 4-0 in the fourth when Jose Constanza walked, stole second and third and scored on Bourn’s broken-bat single to center.
The Cubs scored four runs in the sixth. Brandon Beachy, who gave up two runs on six hits in 5 1-3 innings, was lifted after allowing singles by Barney and Aramis Ramirez and Pena’s run-scoring fly ball. Scott Linebrink replaced Beachy and gave up three straight hits, including Tyler Colvin’s two-run single.
Arodys Vizcaino’s wild pitch to Blake DeWitt allowed Geovany Soto to score from third.
Right fielder Jason Heyward, making his first start since Wednesday, made a diving catch of a line drive hit by Colvin to end the fourth inning with runners on first and second. Heyward, running toward the foul line, saved at least one run when he made the catch while diving forward and landing on his chest.