The Brewers were far from their best today. The pitching staff, in a tough spot in terms of availability after a couple of very close games, made things uncomfortable, but a Brewer offense that finally snapped out of the funk they were in during the first two games of the series gave the pitchers just enough cushion so that Milwaukee could escape with a rare Cincinnati sweep.
Christian Yelich, the first batter of the game, was clipped on the elbow guard by Reds starter Rhett Lowder’s 3-2 pitch and became the game’s first baserunner. Jackson Chourio traded places with him after he grounded into a fielder’s choice, and after a Brice Turang strikeout, William Contreras reached on a single to left. But Jake Bauers was called out on strikes, and the Brewers came up empty.
There was no perfect game watch in this one, but Shane Drohan still pitched a hitless top of the first. The only blemish was a two-out walk to Dane Myers. In the top of the second, Garrett Mitchell led off with a single, but Lowder retired Sal Frelick, Cooper Pratt, and David Hamilton in a row and Mitchell didn’t get off of first base.
The Reds threatened in the bottom of the second, even if they weren’t hitting the ball hard. A ground ball from Spencer Steer snuck through the right side of the infield, and a blooper by Eugenio Suárez landed on the foul line in right field and bounced out of play for a ground-rule double. The Reds were in business with two runners in scoring position and nobody out, but Drohan locked in after that: Noelvi Marte struck out looking, and after a possibly strategic walk to Tyler Stephenson that loaded the bases, Matt McLain popped out and Blake Dunn also struck out looking, burning a challenge in the process.
After Yelich struck out on three pitches to start the second, Jackson Chourio singled on a chopper over Sal Stewart’s head at third base. After a Turang fly out, Contreras hit a ball to deep center. Myers, the outfielder, looked like he might have a play, but he crashed hard into the wall, and the ball hit off the top of the wall and bounced out for a two-run homer.
The Brewers weren’t finished: Bauers was next, and he detonated a 2-2 changeup that didn’t get low enough. It was one of the more impressive homers of the Brewers’ season thus far: an exit velocity of 109.8 mph and 428 feet, which looked longer, way up the grandstand in right field. The Brewers led 3-0 after the top of the third.
Elly De La Cruz won a long battle to start the bottom of the third when he scorched a single to left on a 3-2 pitch. Drohan came back with a strikeout of Myers, but with his pitch count already in trouble (and the Brewers short in the bullpen), Drohan got locked into a long battle with Stewart. Stewart, also, won: on the 12th pitch, he lined a single to center that put runners on the corners with one out. Drohan again worked out of trouble, though, when Steer hit a grounder to short that started a 6-4-3 double play. He was scoreless through three, but already up to 75 pitches.
The Brewers went down in order in the fourth, though Pratt hit a fly ball at 103.9 mph to center which was his hardest hit ball so far in the big leagues. Drohan walked Suárez to start the bottom of the inning, but Marte lined out, Stephenson flew out to the warning track in right, and McLain hit a line drive right to Hamilton to end the inning.
De La Cruz made a nice play on a Chourio one-hopper to start the fifth, and Turang grounded out to first. With two outs, the Brewers mounted a rally when Contreras and Bauers picked up back-to-back hard-hit singles, but Mitchell grounded out to end the inning.
Drohan, at 90 pitches, started the fifth. Blake Dunn lined a single to left to start things, and he moved to second after Turang made a nice play to rob De La Cruz of a single. That was the end of Drohan’s night, with a runner on second and one out in the fifth; he was replaced by Chad Patrick, who got Myers on a groundout but walked Stewart to put runners on the corners with two out. Steer got a hold of one and nearly tied the game, but it died on the warning track and Frelick caught it to end the inning with the Brewers’ 3-0 lead intact.
Frelick had the Brewers in business to start the sixth when he hit a ball just over the outstretched glove of Dunn in left field for a double. But Lowder came back to get Pratt on a ground ball that didn’t advance Frelick, and Hamilton struck out. At that point Reds manager Terry Francona went to lefty Sam Moll to face Yelich, and he nearly snuck one through the infield but McLain made a nice play to save a run.
In the bottom of the sixth, Patrick got Suárez to ground out before walking Marte and Stephenson with one out. JJ Bleday came in as a pinch-hitter for McLain, but he struck out, and Patrick was nearly out of it. But, finally, a player in this series got a hit with a runner in scoring position–the teams were a combined 0-for-29 at that point–and it was fitting that it was a 91 mph ground ball off the end of the bat squeezed down the opposite-field line. De La Cruz nearly added to the Reds’ run total when he hit a line drive to center, but Mitchell made a catch on a half-dive to end the inning. 3-1 Brewers after six.
Chourio grounded out on a close play to start the seventh, but with one out Turang hit a triple to the left center gap–Myers nearly caught it, but since he sacrificed his positioning to try to make the catch, Turang made it to third easily. The Reds chose to intentionally walk Contreras to set up a lefty-lefty showdown with Moll and Bauers, but Bauers drew a nice walk to load the bases. The Reds had righty Tejay Antone warming in the bullpen, but he wasn’t quite ready, and Milwaukee pulled back Mitchell to get Andrew Vaughn an at-bat against a lefty with the bases loaded. Vaughn came through. He hit a hard grounder that bounced twice on the chalk and went right over the bag down the left-field line, and Vaughn had cleared the bases.
Blake Perkins pinch-ran for Vaughn, and Frelick popped out trying to bunt for the second out. Francona moved to Antone–too late–and he struck out Pratt to end the inning. But the damage was done, and the Brewers led 6-1.
Grant Anderson came in to pitch for Milwaukee in the bottom of the seventh. With one out, Stewart lined a double off the wall in the left-field corner, and after Steer popped out for the second out, Suárez doubled, too, and the Reds had their second run. After a walk to Marte, and a visit from Chris Hook, pinch-hitter Nathaniel Lowe walked too. That was all for Anderson, who just didn’t have control today, and the Brewers turned to the young Craig Yoho in a big spot with the bases loaded, two outs, and a four-run lead. Yoho needed just one pitch to get Bleday to ground out to Bauers at first base.
Chourio hit a two-out double in the eighth, but Turang flew out to shallow center to strand Chourio on second base. The Reds got a good start to the bottom of the inning: Edwin Arroyo singled to right, but Frelick bobbled it and Arroyo advanced to second, just beating Frelick’s throw. Yoho got into a long battle with De La Cruz, but walked him after nine pitches. Myers was next, and he hit a weak grounder to short, too slow to get either of the guys on base but an important first out. On the next pitch, Stewart hit another ground ball to Pratt that resulted in a run but also the second out. Unfortunately, the next batter and the way out of the inning, Steer, blasted an 0-1 fastball to the seats in center field for a two-run homer that made it 6-5.
Given that Abner Uribe was suspended and Aaron Ashby and Trevor Megill had pitched on Monday and Tuesday, the Brewers then turned to the last available reliever in their bullpen, Joel Kuhnel. Kuhnel first faced Suárez, who was hit by a pitch that he nearly swung at, but he was awarded first base. Marte was next, and he scalded a ball to short but Pratt made no mistake, and they were through eight innings and still held a lead.
Lefty Brock Burke was the Cincinnati pitcher in the ninth, and he started poorly by walking Contreras, the cap on a fantastic night at the plate for the Brewer catcher. Surprisingly, Contreras tried to sneak a stolen base on the Reds on the first pitch to Bauers and he was thrown out, and one pitch later Bauers grounded out, and the promising start to the inning was gone. After a long at-bat, Perkins popped out to shallow right and the inning was over.
Milwaukee turned it back over to Joel Kuhnel, who was trying to close out the first sweep in Great American Ballpark by a road team since the 2024 season, according to the broadcast. Jose Trevino, who’d come in defensively after Stephenson had been pinch-hit for, was the first batter. He hit a hard grounder to the left side that snuck between Pratt and a diving Hamilton, and the Reds had the tying run aboard. Bleday was next, and Kuhnel was working the bottom of the zone to try to get a ground ball but he was nibbling too much and ended up walking him.
Arroyo was the batter with nobody out and two runners on, and he tried to bunt but he sent it right back to Kuhnel, who turned to third and made a nice throw to third to get the lead runner and the first out. The challenge, here, was that the next batter was De La Cruz, Cincinnati’s best player. Kuhnel looked reinvigorated by the good play on the bunt and pumped in two good low strikes to start things off, but De La Cruz worked back into the count and ended up with a walk to load the bases.
The batter was Myers, who was 0-for-4. Kuhnel didn’t really have anyone to pass it off to, so it was all up to him as he approached 30 pitches. He got ahead of Myers 0-2 as well, and on the fifth pitch of the at-bat, Myers hit a hard ground ball right at Pratt. Pratt gave the Brewer faithful a brief scare when there was a little bobble as the ball came out of his glove, but he got the flip to Turang and Turang made the turn to first for a game-ending 6-4-3 double play.
Whew! Not a pretty game, but an exciting one, one that completed a sweep over the slumping Reds. The pitching staff never looked comfortable today but Drohan, Patrick, Anderson, Yoho, and Kuhnel did just enough to get Milwaukee through the game. The offense showed some life after two miserable games: Chourio, Contreras, and Bauers all had multiple hits, with home runs for the latter two. Contreras shone especially brightly tonight: he was 3-for-3 with a two-run homer, two runs scored, and two walks.
The Brewers get a deserved off-day tomorrow before starting a series in Milwaukee on Friday against the Cubs.