Kevin Tapani took care of the undercard. The Cubs hope Kerry Wood can find a way to upstage him when he faces Greg Maddux in the main event.
Good luck.
In addition to pitching seven strong innings, Tapani hit his first career home run on Monday night. And it was a grand slam. Eat your heart out Sammy Sosa.
Tapani’s third-inning slam off Denny Neagle gave the Cubs a 5-0 lead en route to an 11-4 victory over the Atlanta Braves before 47,475 at Turner Field. This was not a bad evening for a guy who had never hit a home run on any level. He might have hit one in high school, but his school didn’t even have a team.
“I think I got a couple of homers in batting practice before, maybe,” Tapani said. “Maybe one time when the wind was blowing out.”
Tapani wasn’t the only Cub to hit a rare home run either. Shortstop Jeff Blauser hit his first homer in 231 at-bats. It was a three-run shot off Neagle in the fourth that ran the Cubs’ lead to 9-0.
“It makes it even more special to hit it against your former team,” said Blauser, who has looked little like the guy who hit 17 homers for Atlanta last year. “But even without my personal gain, the way we won tonight was pretty special. We beat a good pitcher, and we beat a good team. We’re going to have to continue to do that.”
The victory raised the Cubs’ record to 6-5 on the road trip that ends with Tuesday night’s Wood-Maddux matchup. It kept them in the lead spot in the congested National League wild-card race. They trail first-place Houston by five games in the NL Central.
Trailing 1-0 in the third, Neagle (10-8) almost escaped a leadoff double by Glenallen Hill. He got two outs before walking Kevin Orie and Scott Servais to send Tapani to the plate with the bases loaded. The .182-hitting pitcher drilled a 1-1 fastball over the fence in left-center.
He has little recollection of his home-run trot, however. “I was just trying to make it around,” Tapani said. “I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss one of the bases.”
Tapani (11-6) held the powerful Braves to three runs on eight hits, including home runs by Chipper Jones and Andruw Jones.
“You don’t expect a game like this against a guy like Denny Neagle,” Tapani said. “You figure you are going to have to be your best to beat him. Then you look up that early and have a lead like that . . . I had to find a way to keep my focus.”
