ATLANTA (AP) — Ian Happ hit a long home run and five Chicago Cubs pitchers combined for a 2-0 shutout of the Atlanta Braves on Thursday night, snapping a four-game losing streak.
Ben Brown made his second straight start after starting the season with 12 appearances out of the bullpen. He allowed just one hit in four innings and struck out seven in 65 pitches. In his two starts, he has not allowed a run in eight innings.
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Chicago Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong catches a fly ball hit by Atlanta Braves designated hitter Dominic Smith during the fifth inning of a baseball game, Thursday, May 14, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Erik S. Lesser)
Atlanta Braves shortstop Ha-Seong Kim tries to field a single hit by Chicago Cubs' Pete Crow-Armstrong during the second inning of a baseball game, Thursday, May 14, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Erik S. Lesser)
Chicago Cubs pitcher Ben Brown delivers to an Atlanta Braves batter during the first inning of a baseball game, Thursday, May 14, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Erik S. Lesser)
Atlanta Braves pitcher Chris Sale delivers to a Chicago Cubs batter during the first inning of a baseball game, Thursday, May 14, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Erik S. Lesser)
Chicago Cubs' Ian Happ is greeted in the dugout after scoring against the Atlanta Braves during the sixth inning of a baseball game, Thursday, May 14, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Erik S. Lesser)
Hoby Milner (1-0) earned the win with two scoreless innings, Phil Maton and Jacob Webb each threw a scoreless frame and Daniel Palencia struck out two in the ninth for his third save. The Braves, who lead the majors in runs scored, were shut out for the second time this season and had just five hits.
Chris Sale (6-3) allowed just one unearned run in six innings for the Braves as he worked around five hits and two walks. He had eight strikeouts and left six Cubs on base.
Happ's home run led off the eighth inning and traveled 424 feet to right field, bouncing off the side of the Chop House restaurant. It came off Reynaldo López and extended the Cubs' lead to 2-0.
Michael Busch was 1 for 3 with a single, extending his on-base streak to 15 games.
The Cubs scored their first run thanks to an error by Braves shortstop Ha-Seong Kim in the sixth. With Happ on first, Seiya Suzuki hit a grounder to shortstop. In an effort to start a double play, Kim flipped the ball over the head of second baseman Ozzie Albies, putting runners on first and third. Matt Shaw's fielder's choice RBI scored Happ.
Cubs: RHP Edward Cabrera (3-1, 3.88) will face White Sox RHP Sean Burke (2-3, 3.68) in the opener of a three-game road series Friday against their crosstown rivals.
Braves: RHP Spencer Strider (1-0, 2.89) will make his third start of the season Friday against rookie Red Sox LHP Connelly Early (3-2, 3.16) in the opener of a three-game series in Atlanta.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Chicago Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong catches a fly ball hit by Atlanta Braves designated hitter Dominic Smith during the fifth inning of a baseball game, Thursday, May 14, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Erik S. Lesser)
Atlanta Braves shortstop Ha-Seong Kim tries to field a single hit by Chicago Cubs' Pete Crow-Armstrong during the second inning of a baseball game, Thursday, May 14, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Erik S. Lesser)
Chicago Cubs pitcher Ben Brown delivers to an Atlanta Braves batter during the first inning of a baseball game, Thursday, May 14, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Erik S. Lesser)
Atlanta Braves pitcher Chris Sale delivers to a Chicago Cubs batter during the first inning of a baseball game, Thursday, May 14, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Erik S. Lesser)
Chicago Cubs' Ian Happ is greeted in the dugout after scoring against the Atlanta Braves during the sixth inning of a baseball game, Thursday, May 14, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Erik S. Lesser)
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A man who experts for both prosecutors and defense attorneys had said was intellectually disabled became the 600th person executed in Texas since 1982, put to death Thursday evening for the killing of a 77-year-old retired college professor.
Edward Busby Jr. was pronounced dead at 8:11 p.m. following a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, hours after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a stay over his disabilities claims. The execution capped a series of last-minute legal efforts by Busby's attorneys in a bid to spare his life after the high court's action.
Busby was condemned for the suffocation death of Laura Lee Crane, a 77-year-old retired professor from Texas Christian University who prosecutors say was abducted from a grocery store parking lot in January 2004 and left to suffocate in the trunk of her car with duct tape heavily wrapped around her face, covering her mouth and nose.
The execution was the 600th in Texas since it resumed carrying out the death penalty in 1982. Busby also was the fourth person executed this year in Texas and the 12th nationwide. Earlier Thursday, Oklahoma executed Raymond Johnson for killing his ex-girlfriend and her 7-month-old daughter nearly 20 years ago.
When asked by the warden if he had a final statement, Busby repeatedly apologized and asked for forgiveness.
“I am so sorry for what happened,” he said while strapped to the death chamber gurney. “Miss Crane was a lovely woman. I never meant anything bad to happen to her.” He said he wished he could “take it all back” and added he had “no right to get in that car.”
“I’ll take the blame if that helps."
He said he had surrendered his life to God and urged a sister, who was praying and watching through a window a short distance away, to find a church and “pick up your cross.”
"I’m here because this is the will of God,” he said before the injection got underway.
As the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital began flowing, he took a sharp breath, closed his eyes and gasped. Then he made snoring sounds that got progressively quieter. Within 40 seconds, all movement and sounds ceased. He was pronounced dead 38 minutes afterward.
Busby’s execution had been in doubt after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week issued a stay of execution to further review his claims of intellectual disability. But the Supreme Court overturned the stay Thursday at the request of the Texas Attorney General’s Office. The attorney general’s office had argued that similar appeals were previously rejected and that claims of intellectual disability were “meritless” and based on “conflicting evidence.”
Busby’s lawyers quickly sought a lower court stay but the last request was denied.
The Supreme Court in 2002 had barred the execution of intellectually disabled people. But it has given states some discretion to decide how to determine such disabilities.
Busby's attorneys had argued against putting him to death because a defense expert as well as one hired by the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted the case, both found he was intellectually disabled.
The district attorney’s office had previously recommended Busby’s sentence be reduced to life in prison. But the trial judge in Busby’s case disagreed with the findings of intellectual disability and in 2023 upheld the death sentence.
In a statement Wednesday, the district attorney's office said it requested Thursday's execution date because it believed that under current law Busy was not intellectually disabled.
Two other prior execution dates for Busby had been delayed by courts.
Prosecutors have said Busby and his co-defendant, Kathleen Latimer, abducted Crane in her car from a Fort Worth grocery store parking lot and later put in her vehicle’s trunk as they drove around. Prosecutors said she died in the trunk after suffocating from having 23 feet (7 meters) of duct tape wrapped over her entire face.
Busby was subsequently arrested in Oklahoma City driving Crane’s car and led authorities to her body in Oklahoma just north of the state line with Texas.
After his arrest, Busby told investigators Latimer was the person who had pushed him to abduct Crane, restrain her with the tape and that he never meant her harm. Latimer remains in prison serving a life sentence for murder.
Lozano reported from Houston. Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://x.com/juanlozano70
FILE - Edward Busby Jr., left, confers with attorney Steve Gordon on the second day of his capital murder trial, Nov. 10, 2005, in Fort Worth, Texas. (Rodger Mallison/Star-Telegram via AP, Pool, File)
