Atlanta Braves bash Milwaukee Brewers for second straight win

The Atlanta Braves arrived in Turner Field on Monday night, fresh off a comeback win in St. Louis. The Braves hitters were looking to extend some of their good fortune into the long home stand against the Milwaukee Brewers. Mike Minor took the mound for the Braves, and he was good if a little erratic in the strike zone. Wily Peralta started for the Brewers and never seemed comfortable his entire time on the mound. In fact, Peralta walked more batters in this game than he had in his prior 3 starts. The Braves would take advantage by scoring 3 runs off of Peralta, and knocking him out in the 6th inning.

The Braves struck early in the first inning on a passed ball. It came after Heyward walked, stole second, then tried to move up to third on the errant pitch. The Brewers catcher threw the ball into left field trying to throw out Heyward, leaving Jason to trot home easily. Unfortunately, that would be the only score of the inning since Chris Johnson hit into a twin killing that destroyed the rally. In the second inning, the Braves threatened to put another big number on the board. BJ walked, and Simmons rapped a single to put runners on first and second with no outs. Pena slapped another single to score BJ, making the score 2-0 Braves. Again, the Braves struggled to get those runners across as Minor failed to execute a bunt, Heyward popped out, and Justin grounded out.

Freddie Freeman homered to start the 3rd inning, making the score 3-0 Braves. The field was tilting in favor of the home boys, but the Braves could never seem to really make the Brewers pay for the big mistakes. That became an issue when the Brewers struck back in the 5th. A leadoff walk by Minor in that inning did was leadoff walks usually do. They come back to bite you. Minor gave up a homer to Khris Davis two batters later, and suddenly the Braves lead was down to just one run.

In the 6th, the Braves loaded the bases with nobody out and Freddie Freeman coming to the plate. Everyone was waiting for the best hitter on the team to put this game out of reach. Instead, Freddie struck out, Gattis flew out for a sacrifice fly, and Chris Johnson grounded out. With the bases loaded, the Braves only came away with a single run. Then, Ryan Braun unleashed the fury to right field under a shower of boos in the 8th inning, once against pushing the Braves lead down to one. Braun is used to the boos by now. He probably gets booed while making coffee in the morning.

So with a one-run margin, Braves fans were likely feeling that the team had left a lot of runs on the board. The feeling would turn to euphoria in the bottom of the 8th inning. Ryan Doumit came on to pinch hit for Carpenter, and he blasted a huge homer to left field to make the game 5-3. Then, Jason Heyward got plunked in the arm. Justin Upton appeared next, and he bombed a no-doubter into the right field bleachers. That moved it up to a 7-3 Braves lead, busting the game wide open.

Simmons also figured he’d get in on the party, knocking in Gattis to make it 8-3. Pena would do the same to knock in BJ making it 9-3. The Braves actually batted around the order in the 8th, something we haven’t seen in a long time. Also, for some reason the Brewers decided to pitch Lyle Overbay to close out the inning. Overbay has never pitched in the majors and he’s first baseman, and that is probably going into the trivia archives as we speak. He got Doumit to pop up, so he can lord his 0.00 ERA over his buddies when he’s 70.

The Braves really needed a game like this to shake loose the slumping cobwebs. The team as a whole pounded 15 hits in the game, the highest total so far this season. Simmons and Heyward both had 3 hits apiece, Freeman and Pena had 2 hits each, and Jason Heyward stole 2 bases. In fact, only Chris Johnson didn’t have a hit for the game as he’s mired in a 0/13 slump for his last 3 games. The Braves hit 5-14 with runners in scoring position, which I will take any day of the week. All in all, it was a banner day for the offense.

Next up, Yovani Gallardo faces Julio Teheran in a Tuesday night battle. Tune in to keep the winning streak alive!