MILWAUKEE - The Cincinnati Reds’ trip to Milwaukee came with an unexpected pit stop in Las Vegas, but the real trouble started once they finally got to the ballpark.
After their late-night charter out of Los Angeles was forced to divert because of engine trouble, the Reds spent an unscheduled layover at the Bellagio before continuing on their off day. Manager Terry Francona tried to keep the travel chaos in perspective.
“Can you imagine if we’d landed in, like, Pocatello, Idaho?” he said.
Or Milwaukee?
By the time the Reds took the field, they were in no shape to slow down a Brewers lineup that turned the game into a runaway almost immediately. Milwaukee blasted Cincinnati 20-0, clinching an eighth playoff berth in nine seasons and putting the Brewers in position to lock up a fourth straight National League Central title as soon as Monday (Sept. 14).
Francona said the travel mess didn’t excuse what happened on the field.
“If the (travel issues) did get in the way, that's on us,” he said, noting the players handled the 3 a.m. change in plans before the off day without any griping. “I've been in places where it didn't go like that, and it was a fiasco. This wasn't.”
Except for the baseball part.
Andrew Abbott’s night was over before the Reds had even completed eight trips to the plate, and it was the worst start of his career. The left-hander faced 15 batters, gave up nine hits, and eight of those runners came around to score. Brice Turang cracked a second-inning home run, and Jake Bauers followed three batters later with another, helping blow the game open fast.
“I didn't do anything right,” said the 2025 All-Star.
Abbott said the only thing he managed was filling up the strike zone.
“The only good thing I did was throw strikes,” Abbott said. “But I was in the zone too much.
“I let the team down by getting yanked in the second after such a bad start. That didn’t feel good.”
The Brewers weren’t done. By the end of the fifth inning, they had batted around twice and were sitting on a 17-0 lead.
Milwaukee entered the day with the fewest home runs in the majors, which made the power display even louder. The Brewers hit four homers in all, including Garrett Mitchell’s first Milwaukee grand slam of the year off Luis Mey in the fifth.
For Cincinnati, it was another bruising stop on a rough road trip. The Reds were coming off a 14-1 loss to the Dodgers before the flight issue out of Los Angeles, and this one was even more lopsided. It was their most one-sided defeat of the season.
The loss dropped the Reds to 0-4 on the six-game trip and left them nine games under .500, matching their low point of the season, with 15 games remaining. A team that opened the year with major playoff hopes now needs to finish 11-4 just to avoid a losing record.
The night got strange enough that Jose Trevino took the mound for the second straight game, leaving the Reds’ catcher with two pitching appearances this season - one more than Hunter Greene.
“You try never to make a mockery of the game. People paid money to come,” Francona said. “But you get to a point in the game where you don't want it to affect tomorrow.
“The good part was Trevi gave us two. ... That's about the only bright spot.”
Even Elly De La Cruz couldn’t keep the odd night’s streak going. The red-hot shortstop did not homer, snapping the Reds’ five-game run with a home run - the franchise’s second-longest such streak. Joey Votto holds the club record with seven straight in 2021, when he came just inches short of tying the MLB mark of eight on a drive that hit the top of the wall in New York.
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