Ryan Braun and Jonathan Villar homered as the Brewers added to the Braves’ home woes and completed their first three-game series sweep of the season with Thursday night’s 6-2 win at Turner Field.
Brewers starting pitcher Wily Peralta surrendered two runs over 5 2/3 innings and improved his meager career batting average with a game-tying, two-run single in the fourth off Matt Wisler, who also surrendered Braun’s go-ahead home run in the fifth inning. Milwaukee won three consecutive games only one previous time this year.
“After that homer in the first inning, I was able to settle down and fight,” said Peralta. “It gave me a chance to get a win.”
Tyler Flowers’ two-run home run in the first inning accounted for the only support provided to Wisler, who allowed three earned runs over six innings. The Braves stranded 27 runners and went 1-for-23 with runners in scoring position, while totaling five runs during this three-game series that left them 2-20 at home.
“It’s just one of those things where you just keep grinding, keep working and show up tomorrow and hopefully that’s the day it turns,” Braves interim manager Brian Snitker said.
Brewers leadoff hitter Villar was a thorn in the side of the Braves all series long. Villar batted .417 in the three games (5-for-12) and the later it got in the game, the better he played. The shortstop manufactured the game-winning run in the eighth inning Tuesday night, drove in the winner in the 13th on Wednesday, then on Thursday, blasted his second home run of the year in the seventh, which served as a key insurance run, and scored on the back end of Hernan Perez’s two-run pinch-hit triple that put the game away.
The Braves have batted .075 (4-for-53) with runners in scoring position over their past seven games. They stranded two runners during three of Wednesday’s first five innings and continued this trend Thursday when they were unable to take advantage of either of Jeff Francoeur’s doubles off Peralta. After Francoeur’s second double put runners at second and third with one out in the sixth, Reid Brignac struck out and Nick Markakis lined out to center field.
“We definitely can’t afford to not score on a leadoff double or something like that,” Flowers said. “Usually, when we get something like that rolling, then the offense starts rolling and those things don’t stand out as much.”
So much for playing the percentages. In the fourth-inning, up, 2-0, Atlanta intentionally walked eighth hitter Martin Maldonado to load the bases and face Peralta. But Milwaukee’s starter foiled the strategy, lining Wisler’s 1-1 slider back to center field for a game-tying, two-run single. Peralta had gone hitless in his previous 15 at-bats this season and carried a .074 career batting average (12-for-162) into the game.
Braves leadoff hitter Ender Inciarte did not score a run during the final two games of this series, despite reaching safely in six of 11 plate appearances. He capped his two-hit performance in the series finale with a seventh-inning single that went unrewarded when Freddie Freeman struck out and Kelly Johnson grounded out with two outs and the bases loaded. Freeman has one hit in his past 26 at-bats with runners in scoring position.
Williams Perez will take the mound when the Braves open a three-game series against the Marlins at Turner Field on Friday at 6:35 p.m. CT. Perez has produced two strong starts against the Phillies and one shaky outing against the Pirates since returning from Triple-A Gwinnett. Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcast as a part of the Braves Radio Network beginning at 6:20 PM
