The Reds and Brewers spent Friday night trading punches at Great American Ball Park, but Milwaukee delivered the one blow that changed everything in the fifth.
What started as a tight, back-and-forth series opener turned when Cincinnati’s defense cracked behind Rhett Lowder. A grounder that should have ended the inning turned into a mess, and the Brewers turned that gift into a five-run rally on the way to a 10-7 win.
Cincinnati jumped first in the opening inning. Dane Myers opened the bottom of the 1st with a single, swiped second, and came around on an RBI hit by Elly De La Cruz.
Milwaukee answered right away in the 2nd, when a one-out single and double put two runners in scoring position. Cooper Pratt drove in a run with a groundout, then David Hamilton followed with a triple to give the Brewers the lead.
The inning might have gotten bigger, but Dane Myers made a leaping catch at the wall in center to shut it down.
The lead kept changing hands almost immediately. Eugenio Suarez walked in the bottom of the 2nd and scored on Matt McLain’s two-run homer, pushing Cincinnati back in front.
Milwaukee responded in the 3rd with two walks, then a two-out double from Brice Turang that brought both runners home and put the Brewers up 4-3. Cincinnati took it right back in the bottom half when Eugenio Suarez launched a three-run homer for a 6-4 edge.
After a scoreless 4th, the game tilted hard in Milwaukee’s favor in the 5th. Lowder opened the inning by allowing a single and a walk, then got a grounder to short that looked like a double play ball.
Elly De La Cruz couldn’t handle it cleanly, and everyone was safe. That ended Lowder’s night.
Sam Moll entered and hit the first batter he faced to force in a run. Two batters later, he gave up a three-run triple that put Milwaukee back ahead.
A wild pitch then brought in Cooper Pratt from third, stretching the lead to 9-6.
The Brewers added another run in the 6th off Luis Mey, and Cincinnati did not get back on the board until the 7th. Dane Myers doubled, moved to third on a groundout, and scored on Sal Stewart’s single into right to make it 10-7.
That was as close as the Reds got. They put a baserunner on in the 8th, but that was their only traffic over the final two innings.
The pivotal sequence came in the fifth, where an inning that likely should have ended with two outs instead became a five-run avalanche for Milwaukee.
Elly De La Cruz finished with three hits, while Dane Myers had two. The rest of the Cincinnati lineup managed just 3-for-23, though Eugenio Suarez and Matt McLain each homered.
Sal Stewart’s RBI single in the 7th gave him 106 RBI for the season, tying him for the team’s all-time record with Frank McCormick depending on how that mark is calculated. The club’s media guide listed McCormick, though the team later questioned whether that record should stand the way it had been treated.
Stewart is almost certain to pass it soon.
Carlos Jorge made his MLB debut in the 6th as a pinch hitter and flew out to left.
Both clubs drew five walks and struck out 11 times. Cincinnati went 3-for-5 with runners in scoring position, while Milwaukee went 5-for-18. The Brewers simply had more chances, and they made enough of them count.
The Reds are now 1-7 against the Brewers this season and 18-48 against Milwaukee over their last 66 games.
If the Brewers were to lose out and the Reds were to win out, the two teams would finish with the exact same record.
Saturday, September 5th, 6:40pm ET
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