Braves Beat Brewers 10-1 With 7 Runs in the 7th

Believe it or not, the Atlanta Braves and the Milwaukee Brewers were in the midst of a pitching duel between Julio Teheran and Matt Garza Thursday night. Then the seventh inning happened and Milwaukee lost their suds as Atlanta scored seven runs in the bottom of the inning en route to a 10-1 victory over the Brew Crew.

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Julio Teheran had his best start of the season, going seven innings, allowing just two hits, one earned run and striking out eight batters. Even without Jonathan Lucroy in the Brewers lineup, Milwaukee’s top five hitters are pretty formidable. It was nice to see Julio get back on track tonight despite not having great velocity on his fastball. Not that it mattered because his offspeed stuff and location were impeccable.

The offense was clicking all night for the Atlanta Braves. Atlanta didn’t need to hit any home runs to clobber Milwaukee tonight. Christian Bethancourt had a three hit night, scoring two runs, and had an RBI. He was hitting the ball very well to left field tonight. Perhaps Bethancourt’s bat is finally starting to come around at the Major League level. He called a great game behind the dish, too.

Freddie Freeman and Nick Markakis each had two hits and two RBI’s. Cameron Maybin’s seventh inning single broke it open for the Braves as it put Atlanta up 5-1 with one out. In addition to game-breaking two-RBI single, Maybin scored three times and made the most important defensive play of the game. His double play in the top of the fourth inning was spectacular. He caught a Ryan Braun shot to the warning track in center and threw out Gerardo Parra trying to tag up and reach second. Though Brewers Manager Craig Counsell challenged the play, it remained in Atlanta’s favor during the close part of the game.

Brandon Cunniff and Trevor Cahill pitched a hitless eighth and ninth innings for the Braves bullpen. Cunniff has pitched better than any rookie in the Atlanta ‘pen with a 1.93 ERA. Cahill’s sinker induced three straight grounders to end the ball game. This might be a good role for him going forward.

For the Brewers, this was a rough game. That seventh inning might best summarize what Brewers baseball has been like this season. Garza gives up the go ahead run, his replacement Will Smith walks a batter and then gets ejected for having what looked like clear pine tar on his non-throwing arm. Smith is from Newnan, GA and was beyond livid when the umpire crew ejected the southpaw. It was blatantly obvious like when Michael Pineda had pine tar on his neck last year. There were so many expletives coming from the third base dugout. Garza and Smith were overtly vulgar. The visitor’s clubhouse might be getting destroyed now by the frustrated Brewers. Smith got caught so why is he upset?

It was a good night for the Atlanta Braves in the series opener. Milwaukee needs to just move on from tonight’s collapse and try to play better baseball at the Ted this weekend. Atlanta is officially back to .500 with tonight’s 10-1 victory. Let’s Go Braves!

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Braves Beat Brewers 10-1 With 7 Runs in the 7th.

By John Buhler | May 21, 2015