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Matt Kemp homered three times as the Atlanta Braves extended their winning streak to four straight with an 11-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers.
The Braves continued their offensive onslaught with a season-best 20 hits while Jaime Garcia worked in and out of trouble to pick up his first victory of the season.
Garcia ran into trouble early as Milwaukee loaded the bases in the first inning. Jonathan Villar doubled and later stole third base. Eric Thames followed with a walk. Garcia hit Travis Shaw to load the bases and then walked Domingo Santana to score Villar and put the Brewers in front 1-0.
Atlanta’s offense got moving in the third as Ender Inciarte walked, stole second and later scored on a double by Freddie Freeman. The Braves took the lead in the fourth when Nick Markakis led off with a double and later scored on a single by Tyler Flowers.
Atlanta tacked on three more runs in the fifth including an opposite field home run by Kemp. Milwaukee loaded the bases again against Garcia in the fifth and cut the lead to 5-2 when Keon Broxton scored on a wild pitch. However, Garcia got Jesus Aguilar to fly out to Markakis in right to end the threat.
That was as close as the Brewers would get as the Braves tacked on four more in the seventh including another solo home run by Kemp and a two-run shot by Dansby Swanson.
Kemp’s third homer of the night came in the eighth, a two-run shot to extend Atlanta’s lead to 11-3.
Garcia struggled with his command at times but was able to limit the damage and picked up his first win in a Braves uniform. He allowed three hits and two runs over six innings while striking out three and walking a season-high five batters. Jimmy Nelson takes the loss for the Brewers after allowing 11 hits and five runs over five innings.
Eric O’Flaherty was tagged for a run in the seventh while Matt Wisler and Ian Krol worked scoreless innings in the eighth and the ninth to close out the win.
Kemp finished the night 3-for-5 with three homers and five runs batted in. Flowers went 4-for-5 and raised his average on the season to a crisp .391. Freeman and Markakis finished the night with three hits each.
The win improves Atlanta’s record on the season to 10-12 and their road record to 6-9. They will go for the series sweep on Sunday with Mike Foltynewicz the scheduled starter.