Even the usually stable Martín Pérez couldn’t halt the Braves’ skid that has carried throughout this week’s wild four-city road trip.
A strong few innings by the veteran lefty were derailed by an error he made in the field, causing enough of a tailspin in the aftermath that proved to be too much to overcome in Atlanta’s 4-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers Saturday afternoon.
With the loss, the Braves (75-55) have lost five of six games on this road trip and seven of nine games overall. Should the Phillies
win their eighth straight game later on Saturday, the division lead would fall to three games.
The Braves opened a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Drake Baldwin worked a leadoff walk, moved to third on Matt Olson’s single and scored on Michael Harris II’s double. But it was something of a chance wasted when Atlanta managed to scrape across just the one run with runners in scoring position and one out after Ozzie Albies popped out and Mauricio Dubón lined out to right.
Still, it was the Braves’ first run scored in the first two innings of a game since last Saturday, no doubt a step in the right direction.
That joy was somewhat short-lived, however, as the Brewers rallied to take the lead in the third thanks to Pérez’s critical error.
The left-hander bobbled a slow-roller back his way to allow Cooper Pratt to reach on a leadoff error. After consecutive fielder’s choices moved the runner to third, William Contreras brought him home with a single to right, tying the game on an unearned run.
That jumped up to three unearned runs when Jake Bauers crushed a two-run homer on the 12th pitch of his at-bat 413 feet to center to give Milwaukee a 3-1 lead. What should have been a 12-pitch inning and a 1-0 lead turned into a 37-pitch inning, leaving Pérez at 74 pitches through three and putting a relative cap on how long his outing could be.
Another extended inning where he allowed one more run — close to best-case scenario after Milwaukee had runners on first and third with no outs — ended Pérez’s outing after just four innings. He allowed four runs (one earned) on four hits, leaving the Braves in a 4-1 hole that felt insurmountable given Atlanta’s recent offensive output.
As it turned out, that instinct proved correct. After three of the first four Braves reached against Brewers starter Logan Henderson, the rookie retired 16 of the final 20 Atlanta batters he faced.
By the time his outing concluded after six innings, Henderson’s tough start was long gone as he held the Braves to one run on five hits and two walks with four strikeouts.
Victor Mederos gave Atlanta one scoreless inning of relief, and Brent Suter followed with three shutout innings to give the Braves offense a chance to come to life. But Atlanta couldn’t scrape a run across in the seventh against Chad Patrick, eighth against DL Hall or ninth against Aaron Ashby.
The ninth inning, which the Braves led off with back-to-back singles before Lane Thomas flew out and Austin Riley grounded into a game-ending 6-4-3 double play, summed up the recent slump, which has seen the Braves score two or fewer runs in five of their six games this week.
The Braves will look to avoid their second straight sweep Sunday night in a neutral-site finale against the Brewers at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa.
