For much of the night, the Brewers consistently put runners on base but couldn’t cash them in. Despite going 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position and leaving eight runners on base, timely home runs from Brice Turang and Joey Ortiz, a solid start from Robert Gasser, and quality relief work from Chad Patrick and Aaron Ashby helped Milwaukee sneak away with a late victory.
Gasser opened tonight’s game by striking out Elly De La Cruz and Sal Stewart, but Spencer Steer kept the inning alive
with a single to right. Gasser then walked cleanup hitter JJ Bleday, putting two runners on with two outs.
The next batter, Dane Myers, lined a double down the left field line, scoring Steer and moving Bleday to third. Thankfully, Gasser limited the damage from there, freezing Noelvi Marte with a called third strike on the bottom edge of the zone to end the inning.
Neither team was able to score until the fifth inning, when Cincinnati added to its lead after De La Cruz turned on a 90 mph fastball up and in, sending it over the fence in left-center for his thirteenth home run of the season.
While the Brewers managed just one hit — a Sal Frelick double — through the first five innings, Nick Lodolo wasn’t quite as sharp as he had been in his outing last week. Despite recording just the lone hit, the Crew were able to consistently put pressure on Lodolo — putting at least one runner on base in every inning except the fifth.
Lodolo walked four batters and hit William Contreras over five innings, but the Brewers couldn’t capitalize, going just 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position through the first seven innings. Their lone hit with RISP through seven innings finally came in the sixth against reliever Chase Petty. After Andrew Vaughn doubled and Christian Yelich walked, Jake Bauers lined an RBI single into right to score Vaughn with Milwaukee’s first run of the night.
Frelick then worked a walk on a pitch that would have hit him had he not jumped out of the way. The ball skipped past catcher Tyler Stephenson for a wild pitch, allowing Yelich to score from third and trim Cincinnati’s lead to 3-2. David Hamilton, pinch-hitting for Cooper Pratt, and Joey Ortiz were both retired to end the inning, but the Brewers had suddenly pulled within a run.
In the seventh inning, Patrick — who came in to relieve Gasser with two outs in the sixth — worked around a couple of baserunners to keep the Reds scoreless. With one out in the bottom of the seventh, Brice Turang came up and hit a monster home run to center field to bring the score to three runs apiece.
With the game tied, Aaron “The Vulture 2.0” Ashby came in and pitched a scoreless eighth, working around an infield single by Marte and a throwing error by Ortiz that advanced him to second.
Bauers flew out to start the bottom of the eighth against Sam Moll, who came in to get the last out of the seventh. Frelick singled into left field to give the Brewers a baserunner, and Hamilton bunted him over to second to put yet another runner in scoring position for who else but Joey Ortiz.
Reds manager Terry Francona played the matchup, pulling the left-handed Moll in favor of right-hander Tejay Antone. Ortiz, who had struck out with runners on the corners to end the sixth inning, watched a strike and a ball before Antone threw a sweeper down in the zone. Ortiz didn’t miss it, launching the pitch 412 feet over the center-field wall for a go-ahead two-run homer, his second of the season. Chills.
Trevor Megill slammed the door in the ninth, retiring the Reds in order and punctuating his save with a swinging strikeout of Elly De La Cruz. Ashby picked up his 11th win of the season as the Brewers moved back to 20 games over .500.
While the Brewers’ struggles with runners in scoring position made for a frustrating afternoon, the offense came through when it mattered most. It wasn’t a perfect performance, but this Brewers team has shown time and again that it doesn’t go away quietly. Even when things look kind of bleak, Milwaukee finds a way to keep itself in games. More often than not, they find a way to win them.
After winning the first game of this week’s four-game series against the Reds, the Brewers will get a chance to make it two straight tomorrow at 6:40 p.m. Brandon Sproat will get the ball opposite Rhett Lowder (3-5, 4.81 ERA).
