Trailing 5-4 heading into the bottom of the ninth inning, the Atlanta Braves needed something big to pull out a win over the Chicago Cubs on Saturday night. They got that in the form of brothers Justin Upton and B.J. Upton, who synced up to hit a pair of home runs to lift the Braves to a 6-5 win.
Upton brothers homer in 9th, lift Braves over Cubs
Both Justin and B.J. Upton hit home runs in the bottom of the ninth to lift the Atlanta Braves to a 6-5 win over the Chicago Cubs on Sunday.
Scott Cunningham
B.J. hit the lead-off home run to get things started, and after Jason Heyward flew out to left field, it was Justin who handed Carlos Marmol the loss with a home run of his own, to center field.
Following the victory, David O’Brien took to Twitter and noted this fact, from SABR: this is the sixth time in MLB history that brothers have homered in the same inning, with the last time being the Ripken brothers in 1996. Kevin McAlpin also tweeted that the Uptons are the first brothers in league history to hit game-tying and walk-off home runs in the same inning.
Atlanta was trailing 5-1 heading into the eighth inning when Kyuji Fujikawa relieved James Russell for the Cubs. Fujikawa ended up giving three runs in that inning. Justin hit a double to left field as the lead-off man, and then made it to third on a wild pitch. Freddie Freeman hit a single that scored Upton, and after Dan Uggla made it on base with a single, Ramiro Pena brought both of them home with a single of his own before the inning was over.
Marmol gets the loss after the blown save, and Eric O'Flaherty gets the official win for the Braves. Starter Julio Teheran was pulled after five innings in which he gave up eight hits and all five of Chicago's runs.
It's a tough loss for the Cubs, who fall to 2-3. They've got game three against Atlanta on Sunday at 1:35 p.m. ET before returning home for three games against the Milwaukee Brewers.
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