Game Thread #112: Milwaukee Brewers (62-49) @ Atlanta Braves (60-51)

Series in Atlanta begins tough stretch of schedule

The Milwaukee Brewers and Atlanta Braves start a three-game set tonight at Truist Park, a week after the Braves took two of three from the Brewers in Milwaukee. Since then, the Brewers dropped two of three in Washington and the Braves split a four-game set with the Miami Marlins at home.

The Brewers have been struggling for a while now and are at the start of a difficult part of their schedule. Several players are mired in miserable slumps, and the offense has not been clicking since Christian Yelich returned to the injured list with his persistent back problems. But the optimist points out that after the Cardinals lost to the Mets on Monday, the Brewers’ division lead was back up to six games, a healthy cushion for the final two-ish months of the season.

In Atlanta tonight they’ll turn to Colin Rea to get them back in the win column. Rea’s last start was last Monday, July 29, against this very Braves team, and he pitched well, holding them to two runs on three hits in 5 ¹⁄₃ innings in an 8-3 victory. Atlanta will counter with Bryce Elder, whose last start was also against Milwaukee, who he shut down with one of his best starts of the year: last Tuesday, he allowed just one run in 6 ¹⁄₃ innings with seven strikeouts. But Elder’s full season paints a bit of a different picture: overall, he has struggled, and despite that excellent outing last week his season ERA is still 5.67, though there’s some bad luck in there.

Brice Turang, who is really in a slump, returns to the leadoff spot tonight, but there’s a bit of a shakeup after that. Jackson Chourio and Garrett Mitchell are in the two and three spots, with William Contreras dropping into fourth. Against the right-handed Elder, Jake Bauers is at first base with Rhys Hoskins as the DH.

First pitch is at 6:20 p.m. CT on Bally Sports Wisconsin and the Brewers Radio Network.