MILWAUKEE _ On a night when the Braves twice fought back from four-run deficits without any contributions from Freddie Freeman, the big first baseman came through when it counted most.
Freeman's line-drive two-run homer to center field in the ninth inning lifted the Braves to a 10-8 series-opening win against the Brewers on Friday at Miller Park, the third consecutive win for a team that suddenly has its offense clicking.
After fighting back from deficits of 4-0 and 8-4, the Braves tied the score in the eighth on Kurt Suzuki's second clutch hit in as many days, a pinch-hit RBI single. Then they stunned the Miller Park crowd in the ninth when Adonis Garcia led off with a double and Freeman teed off on reliever Nefali Feliz, sending a no-doubt-about-it liner just to the left of straightway center field for his eighth home run of the season.
The Braves have hit five home runs with runners on base this season, including Freeman's in the ninth. The Brewers hit almost that many in the first six innings Friday night, but the Braves were anything but demoralized.
Instead they were unwavering.
Bartolo Colon gave a pair of multi-run homers in five innings and Jason Motte surrendered a two-run homer to the second batter he faced in his Braves debut. But no lead was safe on this night as the Braves scored a season-high 10 runs to give them 25 runs in a three-game winning streak that included a two-game sweep Wednesday and Thursday against the Mets in rainout-shortened series.
The three straight wins came on the heels of a six-game losing skid by the Braves.
After Orlando Arcia's three-run homer capped four-run second inning that gave the Brewers a 4-0 lead, Matt Kemp had a tying three-run double in the Braves' four-run third inning.
Ryan Braun added a two-run homer off Colon in the fifth and pinch-hitter Domingo Santana hit a two-run homer off Motte in the sixth inning to push the lead back to 8-4. But again, the Braves went to work chipping away at a four-run deficit.
In the seventh inning, after a one-out walk by Dansby Swanson and a pinch-hit single from Lane Adams _ his first major league hit _ the Braves got a two-run double from Ender Inciarte and an RBI single from Adonis Garcia to trim the lead to one run, 8-7.
Freeman lined out and Kemp struck out to end the seventh inning, but the Braves picked up that tying run an inning later after Tyler Flowers and Jace Peterson set things up with consecutive one-out singles in the eighth. Swanson struck out, but Kurt Suzuki came through with a big hit for the second consecutive day, tying the score with a pinch-hit RBI single that scored pinch-runner Julio Teheran.
Yes, manager Brian Snitker had his staff ace pinch-run for Flowers, and the unconventional move worked.
Braun's two-run homer in the fifth was the second big fly to do major damage against Colon, who gave up 10 hits, six runs and two walks in five innings for his third rough start in five outings, raising his ERA to 5.59. Braun's homer and Orlando's Arcia's three-run homer off Colon in the second inning both came on 0-1 pitches left up in the zone and over the middle of the plate.
Colon limited the Mets to two hits and one run in six innings of his Braves debut April 5 and topped that with a seven-inning gem against the Padres on April 16 in which he gave up one hit and one run in seven innings. But in his other three starts the 43-year-old pitcher has allowed totals of 28 hits and 16 earned runs in 16 innings, including 21 hits and 10 runs in 12 innings over his past two against the Phillies and Brewers.
After watching the Brewers grab a 4-0 lead in a four-batter span of the second inning, the Braves responded with four in the next half-inning on two walks and three hits, the big blow delivered by Kemp on his bases-clearing double to the right-center gap.
Kemp's two-out three-run hit followed Freeman's pop fly to center that wasn't deep enough for the Braves to tag up and try to score. They'd loaded the bases after a Peterson double, Swanson walk, Inciarte's one-out RBI single and a walk by Garcia. Peterson has three consecutive two-hit games while filling in for injured second baseman Brandon Phillips.
Brewers starter Chase Anderson issued as many walks in the third inning as he had in any previous start this season, and four earned runs in the inning surpassed by one the season total allowed by the right-hander in his previous 26 innings. Anderson had a 1.13 ERA in four starts before Friday.
Colon wiggled out of a jam in the first inning after giving up a leadoff double to Jonathan Villar and walking Eric Thames, the major league home-run leader. "Big Bart" then induced a double-play grounder from Braun and struck out Travis Shaw to get out of the inning unscathed.
Colon could not, however, repeat the escape in the second inning. The Brewers got consecutive singles and an RBI double from Keon Broxton to start the inning, then Colon left a pitch up in the strike zone to Arcia. His opposite-field homer sailed over the fence near the right-field corner for a 4-0 lead.
The Braves answered the Brewers' big inning with a four-run outburst of their own in the third inning against Anderson, who had been 7-1 with a 2.15 ERA in 16 starts going back to last season.
The Brewers weren't done. Thames hit a line-drive single off the glove Nick Markakis on a diving-catch attempt to start the fifth inning, and Braun followed with a homer to left-center for a 6-4 lead. But the Braves still weren't done either.
