MILWAUKEE — The Braves’ 2-0 loss to the Brewers on opening day was the fifth time they had been shut out by the Brewers in their past seven meetings, and dropped the Braves to 2-8 with a .192 batting average and only 13 total runs in their past 10 games against them before Tuesday.
“And this is a good hitters’ park, right? Except for us,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said Tuesday afternoon in the visitor’s dugout at Miller Park. “I really don’t know. Sometimes you match up against a team well, sometimes you don’t. They’ve got some guys on the mound who are pretty good pitchers. I couldn’t tell you. I’d be lying to you if I said ‘this was the reason.’”
The Braves had been shut out in six of their past nine games against Milwaukee, and gone homerless in eight of the past 10. At Miller Park, they outscored the Brewers 28-7 while sweeping a three-game series in 2010, but entering Tuesday night’s game the Braves were 2-9 at Milwaukee the beginning of the 2011 season, and had scored 18 runs in those 11 games, including seven in one game.
Brewers pitching coach Rick Kranitz was Gonzalez’ pitching coach with the Marlins in 2007 in his first season as a major league manager. He saw Kranitz at Miller Park on Tuesday and joked with him.
“I said, stop showing off, would you?” Gonzalez said. “Let us score at least a run. He said, ‘I don’t know how we’re doing it.’”
