ATLANTA _ The misery expanded beyond the Cubs' bullpen Thursday night at soggy SunTrust Park.
Braves left-hander Max Fried was perfect through 52/3 innings, his team took advantage of three walks in the fifth inning to score five runs, and the Cubs lost, 9-4, to complete a three-game series sweep and extended their losing streak to five games.
The Cubs are 1-5 for the first time since 2012, the first season of team President Theo Epstein's rebuild. They're four games below .500 for the first time since they ended the 2014 season with a 73-89 record under manager Rick Renteria. And they're already 4{ games behind the Brewers in the National League Central Division going into a three-game series that starts Friday in Milwaukee.
Fried, 25, a former first-round pick of the Padres who was traded to the Braves before the 2015 season, lost his perfect-game bid when Mark Zagunis hit a clean single to center field.
Fried struck out five with the aid of a sharp curveball and a fastball clocked as high as 97 mph. Eight of Fried's first 12 outs came on grounders. Willson Contreras swung late at a curve and hit a soft grounder to second for the second out in the fifth, and Fried froze Kyle Schwarber on a 74-mph curve to start the sixth.
Anthony Rizzo snapped the Braves' shutout bid with a two-run home run in the ninth off Chad Sobotka, and Javier Baez followed with a solo shot to right center.
Cubs starter Yu Darvish didn't allow a run until the fourth, but he was pulled after allowing a double to Ender Inciarte and a walk to Josh Donaldson to start the fifth.
Carl Edwards Jr. promptly walked the next two batters and bounced a curve for a wild pitch that scored a run, and Nick Markakis whacked a bases-clearing double off Tyler Chatwood.
The Cubs walked six batters, increasing their season total to 41 (39 unintentional) in six games.
