Brewers play heads-up baseball in 7-2 win over Braves

WP: Jhoulys Chacin (7-3)
LP: Max Fried (1-3)
SV: Dan Jennings (1)

HR: Hernan Perez (5)

Box Score

In a battle between two division leaders, it’s the Brewers that make the first strike.

The game didn’t start too well at all. Jhoulys Chacin started off the game by hitting Ender Inciarte with a pitch, then Ozzie Albies tripled to make it a 1-0 game. Chacin then got Freddie Freeman to hit into a groundout, but took his time throwing to first, allowing Albies to run home and score, making it a 2-0 lead.

The Brewers got one back in the bottom of the first. Jonathan Villar led off with a double, then stole third. Jesus Aguilar brought him in with a sacrifice fly, closing the gap to 2-1 at the end of the first inning. Then, in the second, Hernan Perez led off with a triple, and Keon Broxton walked to put runners at first and third. Tyler Saladino followed that with a single to tie the game at 2-2. With Eric Kratz at the plate, the Brewers executed a double-steal, getting Broxton to third and Saladino to second. Kratz then grounded out to give the Brewers a 3-2 lead. Jhoulys Chacin then took a walk, but on the fourth ball, Fried threw a wild pitch and Saladino went in to score. Tyler Flowers got the ball and threw to Fried covering in time, but Fried couldn’t handle the catch and Saladino scored, making it 4-2.

After Chacin’s bad first inning, he managed to recover well and prevent any more runs from the Braves. From the second inning on, he allowed just a double, a single, a walk, and a hit by pitch. Overall in the game, he allowed two runs on three hits with seven strikeouts and a walk. It was a good recovery after a tough opening.

On the other side, the Brewers got to Fried early and then got to the Braves bullpen. Fried only lasted three innings, allowing four runs on four hits, three walks, and just one strikeout. He only threw 60 pitches in the game before he was taken out for the day. Shane Carle helped preserve the Braves bullpen with three scoreless innings, and Sam Freeman added in a scoreless inning as well.

The Braves then turned to Dan Winkler in the eighth, who entered the day with a 2.34 ERA, 1.69 FIP, and 0 HR allowed. That changed quick. Villar led off the inning with a single, and Christian Yelich doubled to give the Brewers an insurance run at 5-2. After strikeouts from Aguilar and Braun, Perez came up to the plate again, and broke the game wide open, hitting a two-run home run to up the lead to 7-2.

Dan Jennings came in the game in relief of Chacin and pitched a quick 1-2-3 eighth. With the Brewers holding a five-run lead after the eighth, he came out for the ninth, pitched another 1-2-3 inning, and finished off the win for the Brewers, getting some of the top arms some much needed rest.

Game two of the series continues tomorrow at Miller Park. Mike Foltynewicz will face off against Freddy Peralta in the Friday evening game. First pitch is at 7:10 pm.