MILWAUKEE _ It had been nearly nine years since the Braves had a player hit three homers in a game.
Matt Kemp, take a bow.
Kemp hit three home runs Saturday to lead the suddenly surging and extremely streaky Braves to an 11-3 win against the Brewers at Miller Park, their fourth straight and the second night in a row the Braves have set a season-high for runs.
They had a season-high 20 hits Saturday and have totals of 36 runs and 55 hits during their four-game winning streak. This after totaling 20 runs and 50 hits over the previous season games.
Kemp is the first Brave to hit three homers since Mark Teixeira on June 22, 2008 vs. Seattle. It was the 13th career multi-homer game for Kemp but the first time he hit more than two in a game.
The veteran left fielder hit home runs off starter Jimmy Nelson with a runner on in the fifth inning, off left-hander Tommy Milone with bases empty in the seventh and off right-hander Jhan Marinez with a runner on in the eighth inning.
They Braves have been baseball's streakiest team this April, and will look to close out the month with their second consecutive series sweep after pulling out the stops and pounding the Brewers for 21 runs in the first two games of the series.
Overshadowed by Kemp was the first win as a Brave for left-hander Jaime Garcia and first multi-hit game of the season for Dansby Swanson, who also had a home run. Tyler Flowers had four hits and Freddie Freeman and Nick Markakis had three apiece for the Braves.
Garcia worked out of a jam in the first inning on the way to his first win in five starts for the Braves, who scored three runs in the fifth and four in the seventh and clinched their second consecutive series win. They are 4-3 on a three-city trip that ends Sunday.
The winning streak immediately followed a six-game losing streak, which came directly after a five-game winning streak that followed a five-game skid. Yes, it's been a strange early season for the Braves (10-12).
Garcia (1-1) got his first win in five s snapped a career-high six-decision losing streak that spanned 13 games (10 starts) since late August when he was with the Cardinals.
It seemed fitting the win would come at Milwaukee. The left-hander is 12-6 in 22 games (21 starts) against the Brewers, his most wins against any team, and Garcia improved to 6-2 with a 3.71 ERA in nine starts at hitter-friendly Miller Park.
But the way things started Saturday, it hardly seemed Garcia would stick around long enough to get a win. He gave up a leadoff double to Jonathan Villar in the first inning, walked Eric Thames, hit Travis Shaw with a pitch to load the bases with one out, then walked Domingo Santana to bring in the first run of the game.
But just when Garcia seemed ripe for an early exit, he induced a double-play grounder from Hernandez Perez to get out of the inning without further damage. And from there he settled into a groove, recording 12 outs in a span of 12 batters, with Orlando Arcia's second-inning double interrupting that stretch.
Arcia moved to third on a ground-out before Swanson made a sensational inning-ending play to save a run, ranging to his right to field Villar's grounder and throwing across his body and across the diamond for the out at first base.
Garcia cruised from there until the fifth inning, when the Brewers got a run on two walks, a single and a wild pitch.
