Chicago Cubs' Alzolay gets first start behind him
With Adbert Alzolay, there comes an excitement factor.
There also comes a curiosity factor.
After his victorious performance in his first major-league outing last week in relief, Alzolay took the ball as a starter Tuesday night in the Chicago Cubs' 3-2 loss to the Atlanta Braves at Wrigley Field. Alzolay didn't figure into the decision as Ozzie Albies hit a 2-run homer off reliever Mike Montgomery in the seventh to bring the Braves back from being down 2-1.
It was another interesting performance. Alzolay pitched 4⅔ innings, giving up 1 hit and 1 run, a home run on the first pitch of the game to Ronald Acuna. So over 2 outings, Alzolay 8⅔ innings and given up 2 hits, both home runs.
The 24-year-old right-hander is the Cubs' great hope of finally developing a homegrown impact pitcher under the regime led by Theo Epstein.
"There's energy," said Cubs manager Joe Maddon. "When you know the guy's good, there's absolute energy to be derived. But there's also a huge curiosity - 'Let's see if this is real or not.' So I think he answered that call. That last inning, once the home run was hit, he got off his base a little bit, but it's a culmination of excitement and, 'Let's see what you got.' I think it works both ways."
The game opened with a temperature of 84 degrees and a wind blowing out at 15 mph. Acuna hit his ball well, but the jet stream carried it out.
"It's part of the game, "Alzolay said. "He's a free swinger. I know him from like four years ago. I knew it was a ball to swing at, and it was going to be a homer. It's just one pitch. It was just starting the game. If you lose your mind in that situation, you're not going to last a lot of innings in the game."
Braves starter Max Fried did not give up a hit until the fourth, when the Cubs scored twice to go ahead on a 2-run double by Willson Contreras.
Montgomery replaced Alzolay after he walked three batters in the fifth and got out of the inning.
"I thought he did well; he just ran out of gas," Maddon said. "That's why I got up Montgomery. He was going to be our longer guy today. They actually both pitched very well. We just have to be a little more offensive."
In the seventh, Montgomery gave up a one-out single to Brian McCann and a 2-run homer to the next batter, Albies.
The Cubs ran themselves out of a possible big inning in the second. Javier Baez and Contreras opened with walks. After David Bote struck out, Alzolay came to the plate. He bunted through a pitch and missed it. Baez was put out between third base and home plate, and Contreras was tagged out trying for third.
Maddon said Contreras had to either stay at second or make sure to get to third. But with Baez running, there was a chance he could have scurried back to third.
"It's really hard," Contreras said. "I picked (Baez) up late. That was my fault. I should have stayed at second base."