ATLANTA -- The Brewers flipped the calendar to August and kept on winning.

A 2-1 victory over the Braves on Sunday at Truist Park gave Milwaukee five wins in six games on its eastern road trip, 10 wins in 14 games since the All-Star break and 42 wins in 62 games since Willy Adames put on the uniform for the first time on May 22. Now, here comes the home stretch.

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At 63-43 and with a seven-game lead over the second-place Reds, the Brewers are further above .500 and further ahead in the division on Aug. 1 than any team in a franchise history that dates back to 1969. The 1979 Brewers were 19 games over .500 through Aug. 1. The 2011 Brewers had a 3 1/2 game lead in their division.

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“We've got a good squad, man,” said Milwaukee closer Josh Hader, who converted his first save opportunity since the All-Star break with a three-up, three-down ninth. “This is the best squad I've been on, and I think it starts in the clubhouse.”

That’s saying something, since Hader has been striking out Brewers opponents since arriving in the Majors in 2017. He was part of the '18 Milwaukee team that surged in September to tie a franchise record with 96 regular-season victories and played to within one win of the World Series. Hader was also on the '19 Brewers team that made another late-season run to clinch the NL Wild Card despite losing an MVP-caliber Christian Yelich with three weeks to go.

Yes, Hader said, he would take this team over those Brewers teams.

“I'd say 2018 was a really good team, but there's something special about this team,” he said. “I don't know what it is, but you can just see it. You can see it in the way we play baseball. We play together. It's playing for each other, not just yourself. I think at the end of the day, that's what makes us special, and that's what makes us as good as we are.”

This Brewers team starts with pitching and defense, which was excellent on Sunday. Brett Anderson worked fast in a sweltering heat and recorded 16 outs before John Curtiss allowed the day’s first run on an Austin Riley single in the sixth but preserved the lead. Curtiss and Devin Williams both stranded the go-ahead runner on base before Hader made quick work of the Braves in the ninth.

It had been a while since Hader pitched in a spot like that. Since closing out a 5-3 win over the Braves on July 8, Hader pitched only four times in the last 23 days of July, including twice in the past 20 days.

None of those outings were save opportunities.

“We went through an odd sequence of games that doesn’t feel like the Brewers’ teams of the last four years, where there are so many close games,” manager Craig Counsell said. “Just the way it goes. You can’t predict that. We got him a nice rest; we know it’s not going to last. We know we’re going to need him.”

Hader made clear the other day that just because he hadn't pitched much in games does not mean he’s been idle. He said he has worked as extensively as possible before games, especially to refine the changeup that has become more of a factor in his arsenal this season.

“You can't script a baseball game for the ninth inning because you never know when we're going to score,” Hader said. “That's one of the biggest things I've been working on, trying to get in as much work as I can before the game. Honestly, not overthink it because that's one of the things you can get in trouble doing.”

The Brewers only tallied three hits Sunday but made the most of them. Adames got things started with his 13th home run in those 62 games with the Brewers and his 18th homer this season, and well-placed singles for Lorenzo Cain and Luis Urías -- with Cain expertly going from first to third on the Urías hit -- set up Jackie Bradley Jr. for a run-scoring groundout.

Milwaukee’s pitching staff made those runs stand, and the Brewers took another series on the road. That’s where they have done their best work, going 15 games above .500 so far away from American Family Field.

“It's a great group of guys that we have,” Hader said. “We all get along, we all stay connected. That's one of the things ‘Couns’ preaches, he preaches 'staying connected', and it's one of the things we've been able to pick up guys. It's made a difference in this clubhouse. We just have to keep going with the train that we've got going and just have fun with it.”