The surging Milwaukee Brewers will turn to right-hander Freddy Peralta when they open their first home series of the second half on Friday against the Atlanta Braves in a matchup of division leaders.
Peralta (6-7, 4.41 ERA) will be opposed by right-hander Michael Soroka (1-1, 5.40).
The Brewers concluded a 5-1 road trip with a 4-0 victory at Philadelphia on Thursday behind a dominant performance by Corbin Burnes, who gave up two hits in eight innings with 10 strikeouts and one walk.
Christian Yelich continued his hot hitting, going 3-for-4 with a three-run homer as Milwaukee, which leads the National League Central, improved to 45-9 when scoring four or more runs.
Atlanta, the runaway leader in the NL East, snapped a four-game skid Thursday, rallying with four runs in the eighth for a 7-5 home victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks. Matt Olson homered twice for the Braves, giving him an NL-best 32, and Austin Riley added a three-run homer.
“It wasn’t a great homestand, but it wasn’t because of a lack of fight or anything else,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “It’s just one of those things. This was a really good ballgame against a really good club.”
Milwaukee, which is a season-high 11 games above .500, closed the first half with a 1-0 win over the Cincinnati Reds, then posted three more shutouts on the recent road trip — a pair of two-hitters and a one-hitter.
The Brewers’ bullpen has tossed 20 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings over the past seven games.
The relief corps has been bolstered by the addition of hard-throwing rookie Abner Uribe, who has allowed one run in 4 1/3 innings with seven strikeouts since being called up on July 8. Uribe, whose sinking fastball reaches triple digits, struck out three in the ninth against the Phillies on Thursday.
Brewers third baseman Andruw Monasterio, filling in for the injured Brian Anderson, has four consecutive two-hit games.
Peralta allowed just one hit over six scoreless innings in his latest start, a 3-0 victory at Cincinnati on Saturday, for his first win since May 21. He is 1-4 with a 4.70 ERA over his past nine starts.
“Freddy was awesome tonight,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said after the Saturday game. “No threats really, just one baserunner max. I thought he just did a nice job. His fastball was just really good and it made everything else good.”
Peralta has been plagued by the long ball, giving up 16 homers in 98 innings. In his All-Star campaign of 2021, he allowed 14 homers in 144 1/3 innings.
Peralta is 3-1 with a 3.09 ERA in five career games, including four starts, against the Braves. That includes a 1-0 win in his only start against Atlanta last season, when he gave up two hits and one walk over seven innings and struck out 10.
Soroka, continuing an almost three-year comeback from injuries, will be making his fifth start of the season. Soroka, recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett twice this season, pitched in relief his last time out, allowing two runs on three hits in three innings in an 8-1 loss to the Chicago White Sox on Sunday.
Soroka last started on July 5, when he scattered five hits over 4 2/3 scoreless innings in a no-decision at Cleveland.
He will hope to get offensive support from Riley, who is 6-for-13 with four homers and 11 RBIs over the past three games.
–Field Level Media
