Braves top Cubs; Lilly ejected in first inning

Baseball Betting Lines

06/11/2007 - Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ted Lilly was tossed in the first inning for plunking Edgar Renteria and, though the Chicago bullpen pitched well for the first seven innings, everything fell apart for Ryan Dempster in the eighth, as the Atlanta Braves came back to top the Cubs, 5-4, and earn a split in their four-game set.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia went 3-for-4 with a double and a run, and Kelly Johnson homered for the Braves, who have won two in a row, but have lost six of their last nine games. Chad Paronto (3-1) tossed 1 1/3 scoreless innings of relief, and Bob Wickman picked up his 11th save.

Atlanta starter Buddy Carlyle gave up seven hits and four runs in 6 1/3 innings, fanning four for the Braves.

Michael Barrett and Mike Fontenot homered for the Cubs, who have dropped two straight after winning five of six. Dempster (1-3) gave up three hits, three runs, and walked three in an inning, and also had a wild pitch.

Dempster was brought on in the eighth, up 4-2, for a two-inning save, but couldn't even get out of the first inning with the lead. Saltalamacchia doubled off the wall in right, and scored on Scott Thorman's double. Pinch- hitter Willie Harris singled and stole second, and Johnson was intentionally walked, loading the bases. Yunel Escobar grounded into a double play, but the tying run came across, and Dempster's wild pitch allowed Harris to come home with the go-ahead run.

Tempers flared on both sides in the first inning, but only Lilly was sent packing. After striking out the first two batters of the inning, Lilly threw two balls to Renteria before firing the third pitch high and tight, hitting Renteria's left hand. Homeplate umpire Jim Wolf issued warnings to Lilly and both teams as Renteria started towards the mound, and the benches and bullpens cleared. No punches were thrown on either side, but Wolf apparently changed his mind about merely warning Lilly, and ejected the lefty, much to the surprise of both Lilly and manager Lou Piniella.

The seeds for the incident were planted on Saturday, when Atlanta pitcher Tim Hudson plunked Chicago outfielder Alfonso Soriano in the first inning, an obvious message after Soriano blasted three homers in Friday's game. Hudson, however, was not ejected for his actions.

Renteria appeared to exact his own revenge for the plunking later in the inning, as he followed through on his slide into second on a steal attempt and, though he was tagged out by Fontenot, Renteria clocked the Cubs second baseman with his left arm.

Johnson got the Braves on the board with his eighth longball of the season, a one-out solo blast in the third. Later in the inning, with two outs and runners at first and second, Jeff Francoeur poked a clutch single to left, plating another run.

Fontenot's RBI triple in the fifth got the Cubs one run, and Soriano tied things at 2-2 with a sacrifice fly later in the inning.

Barrett gave the Cubs the lead with his ninth homer of the season, a one-out solo shot in the sixth. Fontenot led off the seventh with a long fly ball to left that fell just over the fence and out of the reach of Matt Diaz, for the rookie's first career homer, handing Chicago a two-run lead.

Game Notes

This was Piniella's 3,000th career game as a manager. He is one of 17 major league managers to reach 3,000, and one of four active managers, including Atlanta's Bobby Cox (3,923)...Renteria remained in the game after being hit, but left in the fourth. X-Rays on Renteria's left hand were negative...Atlanta won the season series, 5-4.

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In what should be an outstanding Saturday of March Madness betting action, the top four teams in the South and West Regions square off in what should be extremely close match-ups. Three of the four teams are coming off extremely close games on Thursday evening, only UCLA won semi comfortably over Pitt 64-55.

Ohio State is coming off their second game in a row where in all reality they should have lost. Of course that doesn’t matter now since the name of the game is “survive and advance” but as the tournament continues, they can’t afford to keep getting down to their opponents early. Kansas also avoided a scare by holding off a scrappy Southern Illinois squad. In the third thrilling game of the evening Memphis pulled off the minor upset (+3.5) despite being the higher seed to Texas A&M.

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Memphis vs. Ohio State

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