Major League Baseball
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Milwaukee 8, Atlanta 2
When: 8:10 PM ET, Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Where: Miller Park, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Temperature: 80°
Umpires: Home - Lance Barksdale, 1B - Jordan Baker, 2B - Adrian Johnson, 3B - Gary Cederstrom
Attendance: 37847

Brewers 8, Braves 2:
Rickie Weeks highlighted an eight-run fifth inning with a three-run homer as host Milwaukee completed a three-game sweep of Atlanta.

Yovani Gallardo pitched seven solid innings and Travis Ishikawa clubbed a three-run double for the Brewers (72-71), who have won 18 of their last 23 games to move over .500 for the first time since they were 4-3 on Apr. 12. Milwaukee has improbably pulled within three games of the St. Louis Cardinals for the second wild-card spot in the National League.

The Braves remain comfortably in the top wild-card spot, 5 1/2 games ahead of the Cardinals. They trail the Washington Nationals by 8 1/2 games in the NL East.

The Brewers trailed 2-0 before exploding in the fifth against Paul Maholm. Jeff Bianchi reached on Chipper Jones’ error leading off the frame and Norichika Aoki added a one-out single to put two on for Weeks, who sent a 2-1 pitch into the Atlanta bullpen in right-center field for a 3-2 lead.

Maholm yielded three straight singles for another run and walked Logan Schafer in front of Ishikawa, who hooked an 0-1 slider into the gap in right-center. Gallardo added an RBI double to cap the frame, in which Milwaukee sent 13 batters to the plate.

Gallardo (15-8) struck out six and was charged with two runs on four hits while walking three.

Maholm (12-10) gave up eight runs - six earned - and nine hits in 4 1/3 frames.

GAME NOTEBOOK:
The Braves have scored two runs or less in seven of 12 games this month. … Milwaukee CF Carlos Gomez left in the second inning with a bruised quadriceps after breaking up a double play. He was replaced by Schafer. … Brewers 1B Corey Hart (foot) missed his third straight game. … Atlanta will return home for a three-game series against Washington beginning Friday, while Milwaukee gets Thursday off before hosting the New York Mets.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Atlanta   Milwaukee
Paul Maholm Player Yovani Gallardo
Loss W/L Win
4.1 IP 7.0
2 Strikeouts 6
9 Hits 4
12.46 ERA 2.57
Hitting
Atlanta   Milwaukee
Freddie Freeman Player Norichika Aoki
2 Hits 2
0 RBI 0
0 HR 0
2 TB 2
.500 Avg .500
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Atlanta 5 1 8 .161 10 8 1 4 0 1
Milwaukee 12 1 17 .333 17 6 8 4 0 0