Sheets tough again in win

MILWAUKEE - Give Ben Sheets a run, one Brave said, and you might as well be staring at a five-run deficit. Give Ben Sheets that run early in the game, he added, and you might as well be staring at a loss.

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The Milwaukee starter can be that good. And he was Friday.

Sheets went 7w innings, allowed a run, struck out eight and beat the Braves for the third time in his past four starts . Milwaukee, a 3-1 winner at Miller Park, likewise has beaten Atlanta in three out its past four chances.

Brewers center fielder Brady Clark led off the first with a single, stole second, got to third on Johnny Estrada's throwing error and scored on a grounder .

"When you're facing a guy like that, that's got a history of sticking it to us," Estrada said, "one run feels like five."

Braves starter Horacio Ramirez, who gave up two earned runs in seven innings, felt as if he'd gotten it stuck to him. Again.

Ramirez, now 10-8 this year, has pitched in the seventh inning or beyond it in seven of eight starts since a complete-game shutout of Chicago on July 7. He's just 3-3 in that stretch, however.

"Results are misleading sometimes," he said. "Personally, for me, I felt like I've pitched well my last few starts. I haven't gotten the wins, but I've pitched well. "

Friday was evidence that perfection, or something close to it, is necessary when facing Sheets, Ramirez said.

"When you face somebody like Sheets, one of those upper-echelon pitchers, you have to minimize your mistakes," he said. "In my eyes, I made one."

The one was a cut fastball, just off the plate, that Carlos Lee mashed off the left field foul pole for a two-run homer, his 29th .

Staked to a 3-0 cushion, Sheets (10-9) appeared to be destined for his fourth complete game since July 30.

That bid was derailed after 23 outs because of an apparent injury to his right side. After an 0-2 wild pitch to Chipper Jones, who he'd already struck out twice, Sheets let his arm go limp, in obvious pain. He left the field, aggravated by his forced exit.

"I don't want to see him go down for them," said Braves manager Bobby Cox, adding that he can be "as tough as they come."

After Sheets had to leave, reliever Kane Davis walked Chipper Jones and gave up a single to Andruw Jones to pin the Brewers' starter with a run that cut the lead to 3-1.

Reach Travis Haney at travis.haney@morris.com.