Brewers 2, Braves 0: Give that man a Hand

Win: Burke Badenhop (1-3)
Loss: Tim Hudson (4-7)
Save: Francisco Rodriguez (6)

HR: None

MVP: Aramis Ramirez (.170 WPA)
LVP: Jonathan Lucroy (-.100 WPA)

Fangraphs Win Expectancy Graph
Boxscore

You've got to hand it to the Brewers, two wins against the Braves is nothing to wave off. I could probably count on one hand how many series they have won against good opponents. The Brewers had all hands on deck today to help them achieve victory, at least from the pitching side.

A boatload of injuries forced the Brewers hand as they needed Donovan Hand to make a spot start today. Hand handed in an excellent performance, pitching 4.2 shutout innings, allowing just two hits and one walk while striking out three batters to help give the Brewers the upper hand. John Axford, Mike Gonzalez, Burke Badenhop and Francisco Rodriguez handed the Brewers the game on a silver platter by combining for 4.1 more scoreless innings. Overall, the Braves picked up just four hits today.

While the pitching staff worked their magic, the bats had their hands full with Tim Hudson and the Braves bullpen. Milwaukee hitters are old hands at working through struggles, however, and came up with clutch hits in the middle of the game. Aramis Ramirez, Jonathan Lucroy, and Juan Francisco combined to hit three straight singles in the bottom of the fourth inning, with Francisco's driving in Ramirez.

In the fifth inning, Ramirez returned the RBI favor as he singled in Norichika Aoki after Aoki walked and Jean Segura singled. The Braves never let the game get out of hand, however. Ramirez was the offensive star for Milwaukee, picking up three hits.

Caleb Gindl was handed his first career hit in the sixth inning as he singled to left field. He then picked up his first career stolen base immediately after.

Francisco Rodriguez picked up his 300th career save today. He is the 25th person to do that and is now tied with Jason Isringhausen and Bruce Sutter. I think that deserves a round of applause.