Javy, Chipper Play Heros

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Atlanta -- It was a magical regular season for the Chicago Cubs. The postseason is the same, old thing.

Two outs from evening their first-round playoffs series, the Cubs lost a ninth-inning lead on Javy Lopez's homer, squandered a great scoring chance in the 10th, then had a defensive mixup in the bottom half and lost to the Atlanta Braves 2-1 on Chipper Jones' single Thursday night.

The Braves have a 2-0 lead in the best-of-5 series, which moves to Wrigley Field for Game 3 on Saturday night.

The Cubs, seeking their first World Series title since 1908, turned sloppy after Kevin Tapani's brilliant performance. He took a four-hit shutout into the ninth before giving up Lopez's homer into the left-field stands.

In the top of the 10th, Glenallen Hill led off with walk, was bunted to second by Gary Gaetti and stole third after an intentional walk to Mickey Morandini.

But former Atlanta shortstop Jeff Blauser struck out against rookie Odalis Perez and Lopez threw out Morandani, who was trying to steal second on the 3-2 pitch.

In the bottom of the inning, the Braves struck quickly against loser Terry Mulholland, who took over for Tapani. Walt Weiss walked with one out and Tony Graffanino bunted down the first-base line to four-time Gold Glove Mark Grace.

Grace was late making the throw to Mulholland covering the bag, and the pitcher missed the bag for an error. Jones' followed with a line drive just inside the left-field line while Weiss trotted home with the winning run.

By The Associated Press

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