MILWAUKEE -- Losing three in a row to previously winless Milwaukee was not the momentum the Braves had in mind before their home-opening weekend series against the Philadelphia Phillies.
It’s what they got after losing 4-2 to the Brewers on Thursday afternoon at Miller Park, where the Braves batted .200 and scored eight runs in four games to drop the series and finish 3-4 on their season-opening trip.
Ryan Braun’s first-inning two-run homer off Tommy Hanson sent the Brewers to a series-clinching win over the Braves, who didn’t score after Martin Prado’s two-run single in the second inning.
“Listen, we haven’t played good baseball here,” said Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez, the first time he had criticized his team publicly. Then he tweaked the assessment.
“We played good baseball, but we haven’t hit,” he said. “We still went 3-4 on the road trip, but I think we really smoked the ball [only] one time, in Washington.”
The Braves had 12 hits in Sunday’s 11-2 win against the Nationals and hit .209 with 13 runs in the other six games on the two-city trip.
“It’s hard to swallow right now,” said Prado, who slapped a two-out, two-strike single through the right side of the infield in the second inning for the only runs the Braves mustered against Brewers starter Shaun Marcum (1-1).
After the Braves tied the score in the second, the Brewers reclaimed the lead for good with a run in the bottom of the inning, fueled by Nyjer Morgan’s speed.
Morgan doubled, stole third on the slow-to-the-plate Hanson, then scored on a fielder’s choice grounder when he collided with catcher Brian McCann to keep him from controlling the ball.
Hanson (0-2) was charged with seven hits and three runs in 5 1/3 innings and has a 6.00 ERA after two starts. The Nationals tagged him for five hits and four runs (three earned) in 3 2/3 innings Saturday before he was replaced during a 55-minute rain delay.
“I think the biggest thing for me today was my slider. It wasn’t very good today,” Hanson said. “I think I gave up five out of the seven hits on sliders, and a couple of them were with two strikes. Obviously the biggest one coming when Braun hit the homer.”
Braun is 6-for-15 with four homers against Hanson, all of them two-run homers.
The Braves return home to face the Phillies and three of their Big Four starters -- Cliff Lee on Friday, Roy Oswalt on Saturday, and Cole Hamels on Sunday -- to begin a 10-game homestand.
“It’ll be nice,” Gonzalez said. “We’ve got the home opener tomorrow night, so get some home cooking. I think we’ve got three series at home, so maybe we’ll get our bats going.”
The Braves had eight singles and no extra-base hits Thursday against Marcum and four relievers. Marcum allowed five hits and two walks with four strikeouts in six innings, including a strikeout of Jason Heyward with two on to end the first inning.
“We’ve never faced that guy [Marcum] before,” McCann said. “I mean, that’s the first time any of us have ever seen him, so he’s going to have the upper hand. He kept us off-balance and was able to make pitches when he needed to.
“You know, 3-4 on a road trip ain’t bad, and that’s the way you’ve got to look at it. We were in every ballgame we played. We just weren’t able to get the big knock.”
They had a last-gasp effort thwarted in the eighth inning, when they loaded the bases on consecutive singles by McCann and Dan Uggla and a Heyward walk. Alex Gonzalez grounded out to end the threat.
“The only thing we can do is just keep going and try to get better at-bats and see more pitches, see what happens,” Prado said.
The Braves had only four at-bats with runners in scoring position Thursday, and no such at-bats in two other games in the series.
“These guys can hit the ball,” Gonzalez said of his Braves. “We’re going to be OK offensively. We’ve pitched and we’ve caught it, so that’s a good sign.”
