The Milwaukee Brewers will be looking to rediscover their offense when they host the struggling Atlanta Braves on Monday in the opener of a three-game series.
Left-hander Chris Sale (3-4, 2.93 ERA) starts for the Braves, opposed by right-hander Aaron Civale (1-1, 5.19).
The host Brewers lost 1-0 to the San Diego Padres on Sunday on Manny Machado’s seventh-inning leadoff homer in the deciding game of the three-game set.
Atlanta lost at San Francisco 4-3, completing a three-game sweep by the Giants. The Braves have lost seven straight and 14 of their last 17.
Milwaukee scored just four runs in the series against San Diego, dropping the opener 2-0 and then taking the second game 4-3 on Caleb Durbin’s walk-off homer leading off the ninth.
The Brewers managed just four hits Sunday, but also drew six walks and had a hit batter, stranding 10. They also left 10 on base in Friday’s series opener.
“The whole pitching staff has been very good, our defense has been very good,” Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy said Sunday. “It’s disappointing that we couldn’t put together some clutch hits at the time, but it happens.”
Milwaukee has been shut out eight times this season, compared to nine all of last season.
Civale will be making his fifth start of the season and fourth since coming off the injured list in late May after a strained left hamstring. He picked up the win in his last outing, allowing two first-inning runs and seven hits over 5 1/3 innings in a 3-2 victory at Cincinnati.
“Civale responded very well after the first inning,” Murphy said following that game. “He made big pitches in the second inning and settled in in the third, fourth and fifth.”
Civale has never faced the Braves.
Sale, the 2024 NL Cy Young winner in his first season with Atlanta, is 2-2 with a 1.39 ERA over his last seven starts, allowing seven earned runs in 45 1/3 innings.
Sale was saddled with the loss his last time out, despite allowing just one run on three hits in six innings in Wednesday’s 2-1 defeat at home to Arizona.
“It’s one of those baseball things,” Sale said after his last start. “You do the best you can. You show up every day expecting to win and you do everything you can to win. Sometimes, that just doesn’t happen.”
After giving up five homers in six starts in April, Sale has allowed just two in six starts since then.
Sale is 1-0 with a 2.05 ERA in 26 1/3 innings over four starts vs. Milwaukee. He did not get a decision in two starts last season against the Brewers, allowing four earned runs in 10 1/3 innings, with 16 strikeouts and five walks.
On Sunday, the Braves activated veteran right-hander Jose Ruiz after claiming him off waivers Saturday from Philadelphia. Ruiz was 1-0 with an 8.16 ERA in 16 appearances this season. He was 5-1 with a 3.71 ERA in 52 games with the Phillies last season.
–Field Level Media
