Uggla extends hitting streak to 33 games
The latest entry in Dan Uggla's improbable hitting streak was not enough for Atlanta as Starlin Castro and Darwin Barney each had four hits to help the Chicago Cubs beat the Braves, 8-4, Saturday night.
Uggla had a first-inning single and a fourth-inning homer off Randy Wells (4-4) to extend his hitting streak to 33 games.
Uggla leads the Braves in home runs and is one off the National League lead with 27, including 12 in 27 games since the All-Star break.
The streak, which began on July 5, is the longest in the major leagues this season and the longest in Atlanta Braves history.
Rico Carty hit in 31 straight in 1970 for the previous Atlanta record. Tommy Holmes holds the franchise record with 37 as a member of the Boston Braves in 1945.
Uggla entered Saturday night's game batting .370 (47-for-127) with 14 homers and 31 RBIs during the streak.
Before the game, the Cubs placed Carlos Zambrano on the disqualified list and said the righthander will receive no pay and have no part in team activities for 30 days.
Zambrano cleaned out his locker and left the team after giving up five homers and being ejected from Friday night's 10-4 loss. General manager Jim Hendry said Zambrano's actions, including a brushback pitch to Chipper Jones that led to the ejection, were "intolerable."
"This was the most stringent penalty we could enforce without a release," Hendry said.
Zambrano was placed on the restricted list for six weeks and sent to anger management last season after a verbal altercation with then-teammate Derrek Lee. In 2009, he was suspended after a tirade against an umpire in which he threw a baseball into the outfield and slammed his glove against the dugout fence.-- AP
More MLB news
