MILWAUKEE -- The Braves can finally breathe a sigh of relief.
After dropping each of their last seven games, tying a season-long losing streak, they ended their skid with a 7-1 win over the Brewers on Monday at American Family Field.
It was the first time since the calendar flipped to June that Atlanta went home with a victory. Music was blasting in the clubhouse postgame. The vibes were high.
Picking up the win could be a big confidence boost for a ballclub which had recently been floundering. Ozzie Albies, who recorded his 1,000th career hit in the eighth inning, put it simply: “We needed that.”
“This is the type of game that I think we can kind of build off of and can probably catapult us,” starting pitcher Chris Sale said. “It was a good pitching day, a good offensive day. This was just a good, clean win for the team. Hopefully, we get some momentum from this.”
Entering Monday, the Braves had dropped 14 of their last 17 contests, their worst 17-game stretch since 2016. They were in danger of losing eight consecutive games for the first time since 2016. They were 10 games under .500, the furthest they’ve been below .500 since the end of 2017.
But this team also put together a 19-10 stretch between April 18 and May 18 (the best record in the National League during that time) and hasn’t lost faith that it’s still that team. It just needed to start figuring out how to turn things around.
It helped to have Sale get the ball to start the series opener.
Before the game, Atlanta manager Brian Snitker said the team feels great about its chances when Sale takes the mound, because as “one of the best in the business,” Sale seems to generally give the Braves a chance to win.
That proved to be true once again, with the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner tossing seven-plus innings of one-run ball. Sale allowed five hits and two walks, but struck out 11 Milwaukee batters, his highest single-game total since Aug. 12, 2024.
It was another entry into a strong stretch of starts. Through Sale’s first six outings, he had posted a 5.40 ERA. He hadn’t recorded an out later than the fifth inning.
Atlanta identified some issues in his delivery and arm angle, according to Snitker, and Sale went to work cleaning things up in between starts. After his last eight starts (52 2/3 innings), he’s had a 1.13 ERA with 72 strikeouts. That has brought his ERA down to 2.79. He’s finished at least six innings all but one time in that stretch, four times making it through seven.
“He wasn't happy with where he was,” Snitker said. “I know that, but he worked really hard to figure some things out, and then he's kind of, I'd say, back to where he was last year.”
“He's amazing,” Ronald Acuña Jr. said through interpreter Franco García. “He's a superstar, and he's been doing this for so many years. He knows what he has to go out there and do, and it's our job to just go out there and support him and score some runs.”
That the Braves did.
Acuña got the scoring started for Atlanta in the top of the fifth by blasting a game-tying solo homer to right-center, his fifth in just 16 games since returning from a torn left ACL. Three batters later, Matt Olson put the Braves ahead with a two-run shot to center field.
With Atlanta holding a two-run lead in the top of the eighth, Eli White gave the bullpen some more room to breathe with a two-run homer to left-center, and Marcell Ozuna added on with a two-run single in the ninth. Raisel Iglesias and Dylan Lee put the game away with scoreless innings of relief.
Snitker called it a “complete game,” and getting back in the win column has to feel nice. But it’s still only one game, coming out of a stretch that’s got the Braves closer to the bottom of the NL East than the top.
They need to do more of what they did Monday, and there’s plenty of belief that that’s coming.
“The last thing I'm ever going to do is lose confidence in the team,” Acuña said. “I know the kind of talent that we have on this roster, and I know what we're capable of and I think we're going to get on a little run here.”