Milwaukee Brewers at Atlanta Braves

Sunday's series finale wraps a 3-game set at Truist Park with first pitch at 1:35 PM ET, and the matchup on paper is two teams trending in opposite directions. The Brewers have been the best team in baseball since late April, and they walk in with a 45-26 record despite a starting rotation that's basically held together with duct tape. The Braves, meanwhile, are clinging to first in the NL East at 46-27 — a number that's starting to feel less safe by the day.

Atlanta has dropped 4 of its last 5, including back-to-back-to-back losses to the Giants this week at home by a combined 21-9. They've now lost 6 of their last 7 overall and the offense has gone cold at exactly the wrong time. The pitching matchup card above tells you who's toeing the rubber, but the bigger context is that Walt Weiss is trying to stitch together a rotation without Spencer Strider, Spencer Schwellenbach, and AJ Smith-Shawver — three of the arms that were supposed to anchor this staff.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
MIL	0	8	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	9	13	0
ATL	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	2	4	7	1

Milwaukee comes in riding a 4-of-5 stretch, capped by a 9-4 thumping of Cleveland on Tuesday. What's wild is the Brewers are doing this without Brandon Woodruff (still rehabbing in High-A), Quinn Priester (60-day IL after a thoracic surgeon visit), Logan Henderson, and Coleman Crow. Pat Murphy keeps pulling rabbits out of the hat, and the bullpen — even minus DL Hall and Jared Koenig — keeps finding ways to lock down close games. The 2-1 win over Cleveland on Monday is exactly the kind of grimy result this team has lived on for 2 months.

For Atlanta, the injury list is the real story heading into Sunday. Ronald Acuna Jr. is, per Weiss, "a long way" from a return off the 10-day IL with the hamstring. Michael Harris II sat Wednesday with back trouble. Sean Murphy is still in a splint behind the plate, Jurickson Profar is serving his 162-game PED suspension, and Kyle Farmer is on the shelf. That's a lineup that's missing its leadoff dynamo, its center fielder, its starting catcher, and a starting outfielder — and it's facing arguably the hottest team in the league.

The schedule spot also favors Milwaukee. The Brewers have been at home all week and travel into a Braves club that just played a rain-soaked split doubleheader on Wednesday and is mentally on the ropes. Atlanta still has the ceiling — this is a 46-win team for a reason — but the runway to right the ship before Sunday afternoon is short, and the Brewers are not the team you want to face when you need a get-well game.

Sources