Corbin Burnes was good yet again, but the offense failed to support to him once more and the defense suffered numerous lapses as the Brewers fell to the Braves 3-2 on Saturday night.
We knew it would be a pitching duel coming in as Burnes and Braves starter Max Fried are the aces of their respective staffs. Burnes went six strong allowing just one earned run with 7 strikeouts while Fried went seven innings allowing just four hits, one run, and eight strikeouts.
The Braves got the scoring started in the 5th inning when Ronald Acuna Jr hit a solo home run off Burnes to give Atlanta a 1-0 lead. They added another run in the 6th after some defensive miscues to make it 2-0.
Hunter Renfroe responded in the 7th inning with a booming solo home run to make it a 2-1 deficit. However, Atlanta would grab a key insurance run in the 8th as Travis d'Arnaud singled to score Austin Riley and make it a 3-1 ballgame.
Braves closer Kenley Jansen came on for the 9th and the Brewers had a threat. Christian Yelich started the inning with a double and he came around to score on a Tyrone Taylor single. But with one out, Taylor was caught stealing second on strike three to Rowdy Tellez to end the game, snuffing out the hopes of a last inning rally.
The Brewers defense was unusually poor in this game with Gold Glovers Kolten Wong and Lorenzo Cain both misplaying balls and Rowdy Tellez had issues as well at first base. Burnes got almost no support behind him and little support from his offense yet again.
They'll come back to finish the series in the rubber match tomorrow with Aaron Ashby on the mound for the Crew and Charlie Morton pitching for Atlanta.