Associated Press
MILWAUKEE ó Derek Lowe began waving emphatically as soon as he saw where Jason Kendall’s shot was going. Lowe’s gestures to Nate McLouth were meaningless, but the center fielder made the play all the same.
Casey Kotchman hit a three-run homer and McLouth made a pair of great catches in the sixth when Lowe began to tire, lifting the surging Atlanta Braves to a 10-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday.
“I was waving him over there, I had the perfect angle of it,” Lowe said.
“Maybe that’s why I got there,” joked McLouth, who won his first Gold Glove last season. “It was a good series. Coming in, all these games are big the rest of then season, but when there are teams that are right there in the wild card (race) with us and you have a chance to move ahead of team or separate from teams, it makes them that much more important.”
Atlanta and Milwaukee are certainly headed in opposite directions.
The Braves have won eight of 11 since the All-Star break and even though they remain 61/2 games behind Philadelphia in the NL East.
Kelly Johnson, who hit a two-run homer in the ninth in his first start since coming off the disabled list Thursday, said he can feel a difference over the time he was gone rehabbing his ailing right wrist.
“Confidence. I think everybody’s really stepped up their confidence level, everybody’s been playing so good,” Johnson said. “It’s also like a swagger, it’s just a feeling being in the clubhouse. Everybody’s a little louder, having a little more fun. Things like that. You can really tell.”
It’s no fun for Milwaukee, which fell to 7-14 in July and is fourth in the NL Central after starting the month with a two-game lead in the division.
“We’re not pleasing a lot of people so we’ve got to figure out a way to get it going,” said Corey Hart, who hit a two-run homer in the sixth for the only runs off Lowe.