The Brewers didn’t just beat the Reds again on Saturday - they kept piling on until the scoreboard looked silly. After hanging 20 runs on Cincinnati the night before, Milwaukee came right back with 13 more in a 13-9 win, and the offense spent most of the afternoon acting like it had somewhere to be.
The first inning set the tone. Jackson Chourio drew a leadoff walk, then Brice Turang launched his 19th home run of the season, a new career high, to put Milwaukee in front 2-0 in a hurry.
The Brewers weren’t satisfied with that. With two outs, William Contreras worked another walk, and Garrett Mitchell followed by crushing his 11th homer of the year - a massive shot into the 2nd deck that pushed the lead to 4-0.
Cincinnati did manage to answer more often than it did Friday night, and Eugenio Suarez got it going with a pull-side homer to left after Luis Lara had robbed him of one in right field the night before. The Reds added another run in the third on an Elly De La Cruz double, then broke the game open in the fourth. Suarez walked, JJ Bleday doubled, and Juan Brito - who entered the day hitting .197 - turned on an 0-2 pitch and sent a three-run homer out to tie it at 5-5.
“I think I was 15 of 17 on first pitch strikes, I was getting in good counts, then just throwing terrible two-strike pitches” Drohan said.
That was enough to end Shane Drohan’s night. He lasted 3.2 innings, allowing five hits and five earned runs.
Milwaukee’s response was immediate. In the bottom of the fourth, the rally started with a Jake Bauers walk, then a Christian Yelich single, and Contreras unloaded again, this time for his 17th homer of the season to make it 8-5.
The fifth inning was the kind of frame that can bury a game. The Brewers sent 10 batters to the plate and never let Cincinnati breathe.
Cooper Pratt opened it with his third hit of the game, and from there Milwaukee strung together four straight singles from Chourio, Turang, Bauers, and Yelich. Contreras was intentionally walked to load the bases, setting up Mitchell, who had already hit a grand slam the night before.
This time he drove a 2 RBI double over the head of Hector Rodriguez in right.
Mitchell ended up one triple short of the cycle, finishing 4-for-5 with four RBIs.
While the offense kept hammering away, the Brewers bullpen did its part for most of the afternoon. Chad Patrick, DL Hall, and Antonio Senzatela combined to keep the Reds quiet until the eighth, when Pat Murphy turned to Kyle Harrison.
That didn’t go smoothly. Harrison’s fastball was sitting at 97 MPH, which was a positive, but his command wasn’t there and he left too many pitches over the plate.
Cincinnati made him pay with a pair of 109 MPH base hits, and even the softer contact found grass. Murphy didn’t wait long to pull him.
All four batters Harrison faced reached, and all four scored. Over his last 7.1 innings, he has allowed 23 hits and 17 runs.
“We’ll get this straight. This will happen. You’re going through a rough patch, we’ll get it straight” Murphy said.
Murphy still believes in Harrison, but the rough outing forced him to use two leverage arms he likely wanted to avoid in a blowout. Aaron Ashby had to finish the eighth, and with the lead down to four, Abner Uribe came in to shut the door in the ninth.
The win dropped the Brewers’ magic number to clinch the division to 3.
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