MILWAUKEE — Jake Bauers capped a marathon plate appearance with a tiebreaking two-run homer, Logan Henderson pitched six strong innings and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Atlanta Braves 4-1 on Saturday at American Family Field, wrapping up a series victory with one contest to go in the three-game set between National League division leaders.
The Brewers have won six of their past seven games and are atop the NL Central with their MLB-best mark of 81-49, seven games ahead of the division’s second-place Chicago Cubs.
Atlanta has lost five of six and seven of nine while falling to 75-55 and shrinking their NL East advantage to three games over the second-place Philadelphia Phillies, who pushed their winning streak to eight games with Saturday’s 12-3 rout of the St. Louis Cardinals.
Milwaukee’s Henderson (8-2) continued his impressive rookie season by striking out four batters while allowing one run, five hits and two walks. The 24-year-old right-hander hasn’t allowed more than three runs in any of his 18 career starts in the majors.
Atlanta brought the tying run to the plate after Aaron Ashby allowed consecutive singles to Ozzie Albies and Mauricio Dubón to start the ninth. Ashby then retired Lane Thomas on a fly ball to left and got a double-play grounder from Austin Riley to earn his second save of the season.
Trevor Megill, the Brewers’ usual closer, was unavailable after pitching the last two days.
Milwaukee took the lead for good by scoring three unearned runs in the third.
The Brewers got the leadoff batter on when Atlanta starer Martín Pérez (8-8) mishandled a dribbler from Cooper Pratt, who beat the throw to first.
Two outs later, Pratt scored from third when William Contreras singled to left for Milwaukee’s first hit. Contreras went 2-for-4 on Saturday and is 6-of-8 in this series.
Bauers then fouled off seven straight pitches before finishing a 12-pitch plate appearance with a 413-foot blast to center.
Joey Ortiz doubled and scored in the fourth to make it 4-1.
Pérez threw 97 pitches but lasted just four innings as Milwaukee’s hitters continually worked counts deep against the 35-year-old left-hander.
Atlanta took a 1-0 lead in the first when Michael Harris II doubled home Drake Baldwin. Harris’ double put runners on third and second with one out, but the Braves couldn’t bring either home. The Braves, who were held to a run or less for the fifth time in the past nine games, finished the day 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
The Braves and the Brewers will get a location change for the series finale Sunday when they face off in the Little League Classic in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The scheduled starting pitchers are Atlanta right-hander Tyler Mahle (4-10, 4.53 ERA) and Milwaukee left-hander Shane Drohan (6-4, 3.86).