Jackson Chourio did the damage on the basepaths for Milwaukee, but Sal Frelick finished the job with his bat.
Frelick delivered the biggest swing of the night Wednesday at American Family Field, lining a go-ahead triple in the seventh inning to cap his first career four-hit game and lift the Brewers to a 4-2 win over the Reds.
The victory went to reliever Aaron Ashby, who moved to 12 wins and stayed atop Major League Baseball’s surprise wins leaderboard. Milwaukee also pushed a season-high 22 games over .500 and kept rolling against a division opponent it has handled relentlessly. The Brewers have now won 51 of the last 70 meetings with Cincinnati, including the first three games of this series and six wins over the past week and a half.
Frelick was one hit away from the cycle, and his triple came after a tense moment at the plate four innings earlier. With the game tied 2-2 in the seventh, Frelick stood on third with one out when Brewers rookie Cooper Pratt bunted toward Reds first baseman Spencer Steer. Steer flipped the ball home to catcher Tyler Stephenson, and Frelick was initially ruled out.
Milwaukee challenged, sending the play to MLB’s replay center to examine both the out call and whether Stephenson had blocked the plate. After a long review, crew chief Dan Bellino announced the decision.
“Due to the fact that it was a quickly-developing play, there is no violation of blocking home plate,” Bellino said. “As far as the out call, the ruling on the field stands. The runner is out.”
That decision hung over the game as the score stayed tied for four more innings. Starter Shane Drohan and Ashby kept the Reds quiet outside of Noelvi Marte’s two-run homer off the foul pole in the second.
Then Milwaukee finally broke through in the seventh, when Andrew Vaughn worked a two-out double to keep the inning alive and Frelick followed with the go-ahead triple off Reds reliever Brock Burke. He later came home on a wild pitch for an insurance run.
For Frelick, a former first-round pick who has flashed when healthy but spent much of his Brewers career battling injuries since arriving in 2022, the biggest development has been simple: he’s been on the field. Wednesday marked his 74th game of the season, topping his previous career high by five.
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