Bryant homers twice as Cubs sweep Braves to 7th straight loss
After watching his team's latest homer-fueled win, Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon took a few minutes to address the most frightening hit of the day.
Kris Bryant homered twice and Kyle Schwarber connected an inning after lining a hard foul ball that sent a fan to the hospital Sunday as the Cubs beat Atlanta 9-3, the Braves' seventh straight loss.
The game was briefly delayed in the first inning after Schwarber's foul liner struck a female fan sitting just past the camera well on the first base side.
The woman was carried off on a stretcher and taken to a hospital. The Cubs said she was conscious, but had no further details on her condition.
"Oh my God, awful," Maddon said.
Several fans around the majors have been hit this season by fouls and flying bats, and Major League Baseball has said it is studying the issue of crowd safety.
Maddon issued his own warning.
"Pay attention. I hate to say, but those are wonderful seats. Probably pay a lot of money for them, you're digging the fact that you're right there. I watch and and I see people turning their back to the field when action is going. You just can't do it, you can't do it," he said.
"But what I'm saying is, when you're at the ballpark and you're in those particular locations, watch what is going on. Don't turn your head away from the action. Every time a ball is pitched you look, you look and see, then you can go and talk. That's probably the best answer, to just pay attention."
The Cubs hit five home runs, including a leadoff shot by Dexter Fowler in the first inning and a three-run drive by Miguel Montero.
Jason Hammel (7-5) allowed two runs in 6 1-3 innings. He also contributed an RBI single as the Cubs finished off a four-game sweep.
Matt Wisler (5-4) gave up Bryant's two-run homer in the first, Schwarber's solo drive in the second and Montero's homer in the third.
Maddon thought Fowler rattled the rookie with his leadoff home run.
"Just imagine you're that young pitcher for the Braves right there and that happens right out of the chute. You're staggered a little bit, you are, all of sudden, `What is going on here? I'm not throwing hard enough? Is my location bad?'"
"You think all kinds of crazy stuff when that happens so that benefited us obviously, and we continued to add on. It was really a stellar offensive performance for the last couple of days," Maddon said.
Chicago homered 12 times in the series.
The Cubs completed their first four-game sweep of the Braves since August 1968. This was their fourth four-game sweep of the year, their most since 1945, the last time the Cubs played in the World Series.
"I've never been a part of four four-game sweeps," Hammel said. "That's pretty special. We got something good going."
Chicago improved to a season-high 20 games over .500 and is 13-3 in its last 16 games.
Ryan Lavarnway homered and Nick Swisher had a pair of RBI singles for the Braves. Atlanta has lost nine straight on the road, its longest such skid since dropping 10 in a row in 1996.
Braves star Freddie Freeman said the team is going through growing pains.
"We have three rookies now and even the guys who aren't rookies are still 25, 24. We have a young rotation and they're logging some innings and hopefully they can learn from their mistakes, hopefully they can end on a positive note in their last few starts," he said.
Bryant hit his second homer of the game off Braves reliever David Aardsma in the sixth. It was the rookie's third multihomer game of the season and 19th of the season.
UP NEXT
Braves: Julio Teheran (8-6) is scheduled to start against the Rockies on Monday. In two starts against the Rockies, he is 1-1 with a 5.11 ERA.
Cubs: Jon Lester (8-9) will try to rebound from his worst start of the season in a makeup game at home against the Indians on Monday. He allowed three home runs and seven earned runs in a loss to the Tigers on Tuesday.
TRAINER'S ROOM:
Cubs: SS Addison Russell was removed from the game and is listed as day to day with groin injury.
