Braves at Mets
When: 7:10 p.m. Monday
Where: Citi Field, New York
On TV: Fox Sports Southeast
Daniel Castro singled and scored on Nick Markakis’ sacrifice fly in the 10th inning, and the short-handed Atlanta Braves picked up a rare victory by beating the major league-leading Chicago Cubs 4-3 on Sunday.
Jason Grilli pitched a scoreless 10th for his second save and the Braves won for just the sixth time in 24 games despite blowing a 3-0 after Julio Teheran threw seven scoreless innings.
Atlanta’s morning transaction snafu — Major League Baseball voided Emilio Bonifacio’s promotion from the minors because he wasn’t eligible for the 25-man roster — left the Braves down a player.
Addison Russell’s one-out single in the ninth off Arodys Vizcaino (1-0) tied it for the Cubs, who scored two in the eighth.
Hector Rondon (0-1) allowed two hits in the 10th as the Cubs’ four-game winning streak was snapped.
Nothing has come easy for the Braves in this rebuilding season, and they made their latest victory more difficult than it could have been.
Vizcaino issued a leadoff walk in the ninth to Ben Zobrist, then a bad pickoff throw allowed Zobrist to advance to third. He scored on Russell’s single to right.
That atoned for Russell booting what should have been a double-play grounder in the sixth that led to two runs and put Atlanta ahead 3-0.
Teheran struck out nine and allowed just two singles before the Atlanta bullpen faltered.
The Cubs’ offense was silent until Matt Szczur’s leadoff bunt single in the eighth led to a run on Jason Heyward’s groundout. Dexter Fowler doubled and scored on Kris Bryant’s single.
Bryant also struck out three times in his first game since turning his right ankle Thursday.
Cubs right-hander John Lackey retired his first nine batters and didn’t allow a hit through four innings. He gave up three runs and three hits over eight innings as the Cubs fell to 17-6 and the Braves overcame an embarrassing day for the front office.
Bonifacio was called up from Triple-A Gwinnett and was in the clubhouse before the game when the Braves were informed of their mistake. Bonifacio, released on April 6 and re-signed to a minor league deal April 10, can’t return to the big league roster for 30 days.
With reliever Chris Withrow already headed to the minors, Atlanta had 24 players against the majors’ top team.