Not much went right for the Cincinnati Reds in Milwaukee on Monday night. The Brewers scored nine runs and they held Cincinnati to just four hits and one run in the first of two exhibition games between the two teams before they begin the regular season later this week.
The Highlights
Milwaukee got things started in this one with a rally in the bottom of the 2nd inning. A single, double, and a walk against Brady Singer began the frame to load the bases. A fly out gave Singer an idea he that a grounder could get him out of the inning but David Hamilton put that to bed with a 2-run double into center. Another run scored on a ground out as the Brewers pushed their lead to 3-0.
Cincinnati got one of those runs back in the top of the 3rd when TJ Friedl doubled and scored on a single by Ke’Bryan Hayes. Five pitches into the bottom half of the inning Brice Turang hit a solo home run to make it 4-1.
Milwaukee kept on adding to their lead in the 4th with a little help from the Reds defense. After a 1-out double was followed by a single, David Hamilton stole second base and Tyler Stephenson threw the ball into center on the throw down and that brought in a run. For the second time in the game Garrett Mitchell brought in a run on a ground out.
In the bottom of the 5th inning Emilio Pagan took over to begin the inning and he served up a solo home run to William Contreras that made it 7-1. When Brock Burke took over in the 6th inning things didn’t change as Andrew Vaughn led off the inning with a 432-foot home run into the seats in left field.
Sam Moll came out for the 7th inning and he tossed a shutout frame, giving up just one hit. It was the first inning the Brewers didn’t score in since the 1st. That trend didn’t continue in the 8th as Milwaukee grabbed another run as they put together three hits against Tejay Antone, capped off with an RBI double from Garrett Mitchell that made it 9-1. Cincinnati failed to score in the top of the 9th and that’s where the game ended.
You can see the box score for this game here.
News and Notes
Brady Singer, fresh off of his start that he left early from when he developed a blister, threw 78 pitches with 51 strikes in his 4.0 innings. He gave up five earned runs and was charged with an unearned run on six hits, a walk, and he struck out three.
Brock Burke’s spring statline is about as bad as one can have: 7 IP, 13 H, 3 HR, 6BB, 7K, ERA of 15.43. While we all tend to scream that spring stats don’t mean anything – particularly for veterans – that’s about as bad of a line I can remember from someone who made a team.
The Reds had four hits and five walks n the game. They gave up 12 hits (three were home runs) and had one walk as a pitching staff. Seven of the hits they gave up were extra-base hits.
Milwaukee had all 12 of the hardest hit balls in the game. The Reds only had two batted balls over 100 MPH – a ground out by Ke’Bryan Hayes at 100.8 MPH and a groundout by Hector Rodriguez at 100.9 MPH.
Cincinnati wraps up their final non-regular season game schedule on Tuesday. They’ll remain in Milwaukee to take on the Brewers at American Family Field before heading back to Cincinnati for Opening Day on Thursday. Tuesday’s game has a first pitch scheduled for 5:10pm ET. Rhett Lowder and Chase Burns are the scheduled pitchers for the game.