Milwaukee’s Sunday loss to Cincinnati came with a twist before the bullpen even unraveled: Garrett Mitchell was pulled from the game because of high blood sugar, with manager Pat Murphy stressing the move was purely precautionary.
Murphy said the Brewers were dealing with one of those familiar night-to-day turnaround situations, and that the club continues to search for better ways to manage it.
“We took him out precautionary. He had high blood sugar.
It happens a lot of times from night game to day game,” Murphy said. “The trainers thought it would be best precautionary to take him out.
… We’re working on more and more solutions to that very problem of night game to day game.”
Sunday’s game started at 1:10 p.m. CT, coming on the heels of Friday and Saturday night games at American Family Field. Mitchell had gone 0-for-2 with a walk before exiting, and Murphy said there was no injury involved in the decision.
Mitchell, who has played with Type 1 diabetes since the third grade, wears an insulin pump during games. Milwaukee selected him 20th overall out of UCLA in the 2020 draft, and he told MLB.com that summer he viewed the diagnosis as a strength because he already understood what his body needed to play every day. Jason Johnson became the first major leaguer to wear an insulin pump in a game in 2004, and Ron Santo and Sam Fuld also played with T1D.
The Brewers had their chances, but the game turned once the bullpen took over after Robert Gasser’s strong start. Gasser allowed one run on three hits across five innings, and Murphy praised both the left-hander and catcher Gary Sánchez for the way they handled a tough assignment.
“He was great. Gary did a nice job with him,” Murphy said of Gasser and Sánchez.
“He continues to just, you know, those first 85 pitches, he’s really, really good, you know what I mean? So I thought he did a fabulous job against a team that’s been swinging it.
He deserves a lot of credit here keeping us in the game.”
The Reds broke through against the relievers. Eugenio Suárez launched a three-run homer off Antonio Senzatela in the sixth, then Tyler Stephenson delivered the go-ahead RBI in the eighth against Abner Uribe.
“Our bullpen let us down a little bit. Uribe wasn’t as sharp as normal.
Senza wasn’t his normal self,” Murphy said. “I thought Romero was really good.
DL Hall continues to make big pitches at big times. And Gasser was great.
Offensively, we were a little bit snakebitten. You know, the baseball gods got us a little bit with a couple of those plays.
But, yeah, that’s the way it goes.”
Jake Bauers and Joey Ortiz each homered for Milwaukee, which finished with six hits and went 0-for-7 with runners on base. William Contreras had the day off, though Murphy said he would have played if the situation had called for it.
Mitchell had provided a jolt the night before, homering in the first inning of Saturday’s 13-9 win, a game Milwaukee held onto after Kyle Harrison’s rough eighth. The Brewers had already clinched a postseason berth Friday with a 20-0 win over Cincinnati.
Milwaukee is off Monday and opens a three-game series at Pittsburgh on Tuesday at 5:40 p.m. CT.
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