Another night of lumber slumber
Braves’ Anderson loses no-hit bid in seventh
The Milwaukee Brewers’ offensive woes showed no signs of letting up Saturday night. In fact, they only got worse.
The sagging Brewers didn’t collect a hit until the seventh inning and managed only three for the game in falling to the Atlanta Braves, 5-1, at American Family Field.
It was the 10th loss in 13 games for the Brewers, a slide directly attributable to their inability to generate offense. In those 13 games, they have scored only 34 runs, an average of 2.62 per game.
Once 17-10 and in first place in the National League Central Division, the Brewers are 20-20 and in total disarray offensively. Injuries took a toll, including the back woes that have Christian Yelich on minor-league rehab at Class AAA Nashville, but that doesn’t totally explain the team’s total offensive collapse.
Atlanta starter Ian Anderson took a no-hitter into the seventh inning, albeit with a high pitch count, but the matter became moot when Daniel Vogelbach dumped a pop-fly single into shallow center. Pablo Reyes followed with a double high off the wall in left, barely missing a home run, and just like that Anderson was out of the game.
Lefty A.J. Minter took over and struck out Tyrone Taylor but Jackie Bradley Jr. drew a walk to load the bases and the crowd of 16,344 – the biggest of the season after capacity was raised to 50% – finally had something to cheer about.
Luis Urías drove a sacrifice fly down the left-field line to cut Atlanta’s lead to 4-1. After a double steal by Reyes and Bradley Jr. put both runners in scoring position, pinch-hitter Lorenzo Cain sent a deep drive to the warning track in right-center that centerfielder Guillermo Heredia chased down to frustrate the Brewers once again.
Until that inning, the Brewers had managed to get only two balls out of the infield against Anderson, both by the same hitter. Urías flied out to right in the third inning and flied out to left in the fifth.
The Brewers went quietly after that inning and the Braves restored their lead to four runs in the eighth when William Contreras homered to center off lefty Hoby Milner, making his Milwaukee debut.
The Braves wasted no time jumping on Brewers starter Brett Anderson. With one down in the top of he first, Freddie Freeman drew a walk and Marcell Ozuna laced a single to center, setting up an RBI double by Ozzie Albies into the leftfield corner.
Dansby Swanson followed with a boom sacrifice fly to deep center and the Braves had a quick 2-0 lead.
That margin doubled in the second inning after two were out with nobody on base. Ehire Adrianza singled to center and Freeman followed by going down and getting a sinker from Brett Anderson and driving it out to left-center for his 10th home run of the season, making it 4-0.
Brett Anderson stranded runners on second and third in the third inning by striking out his pitching counterpart but continued to play in traffic in the fourth. With one down, Freeman hit a bouncer off Anderson’s posterior and legged it out for a hit before being forced at second by Ozuna.
When Albies doubled off the wall in right, moving Ozuna to third, that was all for Brett Anderson. Drew Rasmussen came on to strike out Swanson to prevent further damage.
Offensive frustrations continued to mount for the Brewers in the bottom of the inning when Travis Shaw was ejected after taking a called third strike that was borderline low.
It was the second close pitch called a strike during the at-bat and Shaw let home plate umpire Chris Segal know what he thought of it, getting tossed in the process.
The Brewers finally got a runner into scoring position against Ian Anderson in the fifth when Taylor led off with a walk and moved to second on a groundout by Bradley. He stayed there, however, as Urías flied out to left and pinchhitter Billy McKinney bounced out to second.
This is the way it has gone for the Brewers for the past two weeks. They entered play ranked 25th among the 30 major-league clubs in scoring with 142 runs in 39 games, an average of 3.64 runs per game that only went down.
The team batting average of .213, which ranked 28th in the majors, also went down as the Brewers collected only three hits.
RECORD
Overall: 20-20 Home: 9-12 Away: 11-8
ATTENDANCE
16,344
COMING UP
Sunday: Braves at Brewers, 1:10 p.m. Milwaukee RHP Freddy Peralta (3-1, 2.77) vs. Atlanta RHP Huascar Ynoa (4-1, 2.23). TV: Bally Sports Wisconsin. Radio: AM-620.