The Reds didn’t exactly stroll into Sunday afternoon with control of the game. They had to fight for it, claw for it, and then survive one last Brewers push before leaving with a 4-3 win that snapped a five-game losing streak.
Milwaukee struck first and did it quickly against Chase Burns. A walk in the second inning set the table for Joey Ortiz, who followed with a two-run homer to put the Brewers in front. Burns gave Cincinnati three innings and allowed those two runs, and Brandon Williamson took over from there, keeping the score right where it was through his first two innings of work.
Cincinnati’s offense finally cracked things open in the sixth. Elly De La Cruz opened the inning with a single, which was enough to send starter Robert Gasser to the dugout. Sal Stewart greeted Antonio Senzatela with another single, and two pitches later Eugenio Suarez changed the game with a three-run homer that gave the Reds their first lead of the series.
That edge didn’t last long. Jake Bauers led off the bottom of the seventh with a solo shot to tie the game at 3-3, and suddenly the Reds were back in a scrap.
They answered right away in the eighth. De La Cruz started the frame with another leadoff single, Stewart added one of his own to move him to third, and Tyler Stephenson delivered the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly to the warning track in right-center.
The Brewers made the ninth interesting. They got a leadoff single, but Emilio Pagan settled in with a strikeout and then a groundball force out. Christian Yelich came up next and sent a shallow fly ball into foul territory in left, but TJ Friedl got there just in time and made the game-ending catch as the Reds hung on.
The eighth inning also featured a wild sequence for Milwaukee. After a leadoff single, a sacrifice bunt moved Cooper Pratt to second.
Sal Frelick reached when Brock Burke fielded the ball and threw it in the dirt, and Sal Stewart couldn’t stay on the bag on the play. Then Jackson Chourio lined one back up the middle, Burke snagged it, and the Brewers ended up doubled off at second after another throw in the dirt, with Juan Brito making a nice catch to finish the double play.
Frelick then tried to steal second three pitches later, but Jose Trevino threw him out easily to end the inning.
Elly De La Cruz and Sal Stewart each finished with multi-hit games. Suarez homered for the second straight game, and since the trade deadline he’s up to 10 home runs and 29 RBI with a .940 OPS.
Brock Burke’s shutout inning dropped his ERA to 2.43, and Pagan continued his perfect run in save chances since returning from the injured list in July, going 17-for-17 with a 2.19 ERA in 26 games.
Monday September 14th, 6:40pm ET
In Other News...
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The bigger issue is the scale of the damage, which now feels impossible to ignore in the context of a season that still has plenty of baseball left. Milwaukee put up a franchise-record 33 runs across two games against the Reds, a jarring number even by the standards of a bad week. Cincinnati has to find a way to stop the bleeding soon, because the rotation and bullpen are no longer just struggling - they are making the wrong kind of history. [Read more 🡒]