Freeman’s two bombs not enough in Atlanta Braves loss at Milwaukee

Freeman can’t do it all, but that doesn’t stop him from trying.

After enjoying a nice—if largely unnoticed on a national scale—stretch of baseball over the last two weeks, the Atlanta Braves hit a road block Wednesday night in Milwaukee, dropping a 4-3 decision to the Brewers.

The culprit was Joel De La Cruz, who had been on a nice stretch of his own lately—a 1.72 ERA and .168 opponent’s batting average over his last eight appearances shuttling back and forth from bullpen to the rotation, including one earned run over 9.2 innings in his previous two starts.

He had danced around five walks in his previous start against the Cardinals, and it was a bit touch and go his first time through the order against the Brew Crew. In the second, De La Cruz was able to survive back-to-back walks and a Manny Maldonado single after A.J. Pierzynski was able to throw out Hernan Perez on a steal attempt.

He would not be so lucky his next time through the order.

The Braves would stake the early lead in the third, with Ender Inciarte’s Ric Flair (WOOO!) into centerfield scoring Pierzynski. But de la Cruz fell apart in the home half, giving up four runs—one via Ryan Braun single and three on a mammoth, 440-foot moonshot off the bat of Chris Carter—to put the Braves in a three-run hole.

(Stay ridiculous, Paul Byrd.)

For most offenses, down three runs with two-thirds of the game remaining is not the end of the world. The Braves, despite the Matt Kemp addition, are not most offenses—Atlanta is 9-56 when giving up four or more runs in 2016.

9-56! That’s impressive, really.

Freddie Freeman would do his part, smashing a solo homer to left-center to lead off the fourth inning—his 20^th on the season, the first time since 2013 he’s smacked at least 20 homers.

I must be getting old, because I don’t understand those cartoon things at all.

Although De La Cruz would survive the fourth without allowing a run, it would be his final frame thanks to a liner to his knee. Orlando Arcia hit a screamer back through the box, catching de la Cruz in the right knee—he recovered in time to make the play at first to get out of the inning but was lifted anyway. X-rays were negative.

De La Cruz’s opposite number, Chase Anderson, wasn’t great but he was good enough, going 5.1 and scattering six hits and two earned while striking out three.

Blaine Boyer and Carlos Torres held things in check over the following inning-plus, but Corey Knebel was greeted by Freeman with another solo bomb in the top of the eighth—Freeman’s second multi-homer game of the season and the eighth of his career.

Maldonado roped a two-out shot toward the right-center gap, his third of the night, in the Milwaukee eighth but was cut down by Nick Markakis trying to stretch it into a double and keeping the deficit at one run. But Tyler Thornburg slammed the door for the Brewers in the ninth to hand Atlanta its first loss of the series and just its fifth in its last 15 games.

In more tragic news, RIP to Erick Aybar’s 14-game hit streak, which came to an end thanks to an 0-for-4 performance. Long live Erick Aybar’s 14-game hit streak. Braves Twitter is back to openly hating you again, if it ever stopped.

Next: JT and Arodys are on the way back

A 2:10 p.m. (ET) series finale pits Matt Garza against the Artist Formerly Known as Fausto Carmona Thursday afternoon, which would be something to be pretty jazzed up about in 2010. Instead, it’s a matchup of two guys whose best days are way behind them. Should be fun!