Braves gain confidence

MILWAUKEE --- 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 over the Milwaukee Brewers 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.

"Unbelievable," is how Atlanta catcher Brian McCann described McLouth's two catches.

The Braves have won eight of 11 since the All-Star break and remain 61/2 games behind Philadelphia in the NL East.

"It was a good series," McLouth said. "Coming in, all these games are big the rest of the 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."

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 in the team's attitude from before he left to rehab 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.

Kotchman's deep drive to right off Braden Looper in the sixth gave Atlanta a 5-0 lead and the Braves scored five times off Milwaukee's bullpen, starting with McCann's solo homer in the seventh.

Lowe (10-7) has been a main beneficiary of the added offense. In the veteran right-hander's last four starts, he's 3-0 with a 2.63 ERA and has allowed only two homers.

Lowe struck out three and forced 10 groundball outs before running into trouble in the sixth and needing McLouth's help.

"I went from the most part getting groundballs to what amounts to about 1,000 feet of two outs and a home run," Lowe said.

"The play of the game is clearly the Kendall ball," he said. "The inning really could've unraveled, but he makes a great play, we come back and a great win."