Jacob Misiorowski pitched six shutout innings and outdueled Chris Sale in a matchup of Cy Young Award candidates as the Milwaukee Brewers beat the visiting Atlanta Braves 2-1 on Friday.
Misiorowski (13-5) allowed four hits with two walks and six strikeouts. Antonio Senzatela gave up one run over two innings before Trevor Megill worked around a two-out single in the ninth for his 24th save.
William Contreras had four hits and drove in a run for Milwaukee, which won for the fifth time in its last six games.
Atlanta brought the go-ahead run to the plate in the ninth after Mike Yastrzemski singled with two outs. Pinch runner Lane Thomas stole second before Megill struck out Ronald Acuna Jr. to seal the opener of the three-game series.
Michael Harris II and Mauricio Dubon had two hits apiece for Atlanta, which lost for the fourth time in its last five games.
Sale (12-9) yielded two runs on eight hits over six innings. He struck out six with no walks.
Milwaukee scored first in the matchup between the starting pitchers who entered Friday with the two lowest ERAs in the major leagues.
Luis Lara and Jackson Chourio opened the third inning with back-to-back singles to put runners on the corners before Lara scored on Contreras’ one-out single to center.
Andrew Vaughn then narrowly beat out a double-play attempt that allowed Chourio to score from third.
The game featured a pair of stellar defensive plays. Lara singled into the right field corner to begin the bottom of the fifth and was thrown out attempting to stretch it into a double on Acuna’s perfect throw.
Lara provided his own defensive highlight with one out in the bottom of the sixth on a leaping catch of Matt Olson’s fly ball at the center field wall.
Atlanta cut the deficit in half in the eighth inning. With runners on the corners and two outs, Acuna scored on Harris’ single to left field.
After Ozzie Albies walked on five pitches, Senzatela got Dubon to line out to right field to strand the bases loaded.
Milwaukee put their first two batters on in the eighth, but Dylan Dodd escaped unscathed when Jake Bauers struck out and Gary Sanchez grounded into an inning-ending double play.
