MILWAUKEE — In a possible postseason matchup featuring pitching aces from both teams, the Brewers bested the Braves 2-1 on Friday afternoon at American Family Field in front of a crowd of 40,130.
Braves left-hander Chris Sale allowed two runs — both in the third inning — in his six innings of work. All eight hits that Sale (12-9) allowed were singles. He walked none, induced 15 whiffs, got 17 called strikes and threw 94 pitches.
Brewers’ right-hander Jacob Misiorowski threw six scoreless innings and worked around four hits and two walks. The flamethrower struck out six, got 14 whiffs and 13 called strikes during his 96-pitch outing.
After both the starters retired for the day, the Braves put together a rally in the seventh with runners at the corners and two outs. Michael Harris II, facing right-hander reliever Antonio Senzatela, shot a single down the line in left, cutting the deficit to 2-1.
Ozzie Albies drew a five-pitch walk to load the bases. Mauricio Dubón, who leads the team with 29 RBIs with two outs and runners in scoring position, hit a 1-1 cutter right on the screws but into the glove of Luis Lara in right field.
Mike Yastrzemski hit a two-out single off Brewers closer Trevor Megill in the ninth to get the tying run to the plate in the form of Ronald Acuña Jr. After pinch-runner Lane Thomas stole second, Acuñastruck out, giving Megill his 24th save of the season.
The Braves (75-54) fell to 19-19 in one-run games.
The Brewers (80-49) got to Sale first, stringing together three singles, the last of which came off the bat of William Contreras and went just out of reach of Sale’s glove before rolling through the middle for an RBI hit. Cleanup hitter Andrew Vaughn doubled the Brewers’ lead by hitting a slow-roller to shortstop and beating out the relay throw from second on what could have been a double play.
In the fifth, Misiorowski (13-5) issued a one-out walk to Dominic Smith and a two-out walk to Mike Yastrzemski, but Acuña grounded out weakly to shortstop to end the inning.
Misiorowski showed signs of slowing in the sixth when Matt Olson hit a 105-mph line drive to deep center that Lara, who started the game in center field, tracked down with a leaping catch before crashing into the wall. Harris hit a ball 110 mph off the bat that went for a double into the right field gap, but Ozzie Albies ended the inning with a flyout to right.
With the victory, the Brewers became baseball’s first 80-win team.
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