Braves score one run again: 4-1 in Milwaukee, 10 runs in six games, Williamsport tonight

Milwaukee beat Atlanta 4-1 on Saturday, and the box score is starting to look like a photocopy. One run. Again. The Braves have scored two or fewer in five of six games this week, 10 runs across the first six games of this trip, and they have not homered since Drake Baldwin went deep Tuesday in Minnesota — 116 at-bats and counting.

They still sit first in the NL East at 75-55. The Phillies are 72-58, three back, and riding eight straight wins. That lead used to feel fat. It does not tonight.

Henderson, then a 12-pitch dagger

Atlanta actually scored first. Michael Harris II — seven-game hitting streak, .393/.393/.571 in it — doubled Baldwin home in the first. Runners on second and third, one out. Nobody else came home. The Braves finished 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

Logan Henderson (8-2) did what Jacob Misiorowski did Friday: six innings, one run, and no more than three earned in any of his 18 big-league starts. Martín Pérez (8-8) threw 97 pitches and lasted four. Milwaukee’s third inning was the game. Pérez bobbled Cooper Pratt’s dribbler. Two outs later William Contreras singled Pratt in — Contreras is 6-for-8 in the series — and Jake Bauers fouled off seven straight pitches in a 12-pitch at-bat before a 413-foot two-run shot to center, his 23rd. Three unearned. Joey Ortiz doubled and scored in the fourth. 4-1.

Aaron Ashby closed it. Ozzie Albies and Mauricio Dubón singled to start the ninth. Lane Thomas flied to left. Austin Riley bounced into a game-ending double play. Second save for Ashby; Trevor Megill had worked the two days before.

Weiss is not hiding the math

Walt Weiss said the names in the lineup are still good names. He also said the quiet part: “The bottom line is we still haven’t scored many runs. You’ve got to score runs.” He thought the at-bats the last two days were better than Minnesota. The results were not. Atlanta is 1-for-the-weekend in Milwaukee after Chris Sale lost 2-1 on Friday.

Harris, to his credit, is not scoreboard-watching. “You can’t think about who’s behind you. As long as you win the game, you kind of control your own distance.” True. They have not been winning the game.

This is still a first-place club that can mash when the ball leaves the yard. Weiss said it himself: they have been homer-reliant for years, and they thrive when it is in the seats. Right now it is not.

Williamsport is not a bye

Sunday is the Little League Classic in Williamsport — 7 p.m. ET on ESPN. Tyler Mahle (4-10, 4.53) against Shane Drohan (6-4, 3.86). Neutral site, kids in the dugout, national TV. Dominic Smith has done this twice before (Mets 2018, Nationals 2023). Weiss has never been. The clubhouse is excited, which is allowed.

It is also the last chance to salvage a series against the best record in baseball (Brewers 81-49) before the Dodgers come to Truist. A sweep in kids’ cleats still counts in the loss column. Mahle was the deadline starter Atlanta actually got. Tonight is the version of that bet that has to miss bats, because this lineup is not bailing anyone out.

Bird Gang bottom line

Sale was good Friday. Pérez was short Saturday. The constant is the bats: one run, leftover traffic, no homers. Take Williamsport or this Milwaukee trip is the week first place started answering the phone when Philadelphia called.

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