If the rest of the season goes the way the Braves hope, it’s highly unlikely they will remember the 13-1 trouncing handed to them by the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night at Miller Park.
In fact, should the Braves bounce back behind Dallas Keuchel and a fairly well-rested bullpen in the series finale Wednesday afternoon, Tuesday's loss might even be forgotten by the time the Braves board their charter flight back to Atlanta.
“You don't like losing, but it's going to happen,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “I knew coming into tonight, we had all we could handle with (Brewers starter Brandon Woodruff). You can't make mistakes, you have to keep it manageable, hope he gets his pitch count (up) and get into their bullpen because he's really good, but we just couldn't do that.”
Indeed, the Braves couldn't do much of anything against Woodruff (11-3), who held the Braves to a run on five hits and a pair of walks while striking out seven over 6-2/3 innings of work in his first start of the second half.
Credit: Morry Gash
Credit: Morry Gash
The only blemish on Woodruff's line was a solo home run by catcher Tyler Flowers to lead off the fifth inning, which cut into what had been a 3-0 Milwaukee lead, thanks to Keston Hiura's two-out solo homer in the second and a two-run third inning.
All three runs came at the expense of right-hander Bryse Wilson, who was recalled earlier in the day from Triple-A Gwinnett. Wilson gave up four runs on six hits and three walks with a strikeout in four innings of work.
"I battled well," Wilson said. "I didn't throw as many strikes as I wanted to, but they weren't bad misses. I had three walks, but they were competitive walks. I battled against a really competitive team so you can't be too upset about it."
Wilson (1-1) had thrown only 69 pitches when he came out for the fifth, but after walking Christian Yelich and Yasmani Grandal to open the inning, Snitker turned to left-hander Jerry Blevins, who let Yelich score on a wild pitch and walked two more to load the bases, but worked out of the jam without further damage.
“We still had a chance coming out of the fifth,” Snitker said. “We were still within striking distance, but it just kind of got out of hand.”
Lorenzo Cain started that process with a solo homer to lead off the sixth, putting the Braves down 5-1. The Braves finally chased Woodruff with two out in the seventh but Austin Riley was left stranded when Jeremy Jeffress got Ronald Acuna on a fly out to right and the Brewers plated two more in the bottom of the inning on back-to-back RBI singles off Huascar Ynoa.
Milwaukee broke the game open later in the inning on a grand slam by Yelich, his MLB-leading 33rd home run of the season, and added two more in the ninth. The Brewers' 13 runs marked a season-high for runs scored as well the second-most scored by a Braves opponent this season. The Cardinals and Nationals each scored 14 runs against the Braves on May 13 and 29, respectively.
“That's a really good club,” Snitker said. “They're deep, they're a good offensive team so you have to make pitches. You can't leave the ball out over the middle of the plate. If you don't execute pitches, they have the ability to hurt you.”
The 12-run defeat also marked the Braves' worst since a 17-2 loss to the Rockies on Aug. 16, 2017. The Braves had won eight of their past nine overall and 10 of their past 13 road games.
Still, with Keuchel slated to start and most of his key relievers rested and available Wednesday, Snitker likes his team's chances of winning a series for the 10th time in 11 tries.
“We still have a chance to win the series,” he said. “I feel good going into tomorrow's game. We'll wake up, have breakfast and expect to win a game tomorrow.”
