The Brewers are starting to look like themselves again. After some recent struggles with runners in scoring position, they broke out of their slump with a big fourth inning. With another solid day from Brandon Sproat, the Brewers took a 7-2 win on Tuesday night.
The day started out looking rough for Sproat. After Elly De La Cruz hit a deep fly ball to start the game, Sal Stewart hit a home run to give the Reds an early 1-0 lead. Sproat also allowed a two-out walk to Eugenio Suárez, but he was
caught stealing to end the inning.
Meanwhile, Rhett Lowder struck out the side in the first inning to start his day strong. In the second, the Brewers got their first baserunner on a Jake Bauers single. He got to second on a passed ball by Jose Trevino to get into scoring position. On the next pitch, Garrett Mitchell singled to right, and Bauers beat the throw home. That tied the game at 1-1.
Sproat recovered from the first-inning run and kept the Reds in check for the next few innings. He worked around a one-out single in the second for a clean inning. In the third, he walked leadoff batter TJ Friedl and threw a wild pitch, but stranded Friedl at second. The fourth was Sproat’s strongest inning as he struck out the side.
Lowder had a clean third inning, but the Brewers came out swinging in the fourth. They started the inning with five consecutive singles. William Contreras, Bauers and Mitchell had the first three to load the bases. Sal Frelick hit the fourth and gave the Brewers a 2-1 lead. Joey Ortiz followed that with another single, driving in two to make it 4-1.
With no outs and two on, Hamilton went for the sacrifice bunt and moved Ortiz up to second. Christian Yelich then drew a walk to load the bases again, and Jackson Chourio added the sixth single of the inning. That pushed the lead to 5-1.
Brice Turang almost drew a walk, but a challenge on ball four overturned the walk into a strikeout. Contreras followed that up with a groundout that Edwin Arroyo bobbled, but still had time to throw out Contreras at first.
The Brewers added on another run in the fifth. Bauers led off the inning with a home run on the first pitch he saw, increasing the lead to 6-1.
A single from Ortiz three batters later ended Lowder’s day, and Caleb Ferguson entered in relief. He finished the inning with a Hamilton lineout. Lowder finished the day at 4 2/3 innings pitched, six runs allowed on 11 hits, with eight strikeouts and one walk.
Murphy stuck with Sproat at 93 pitches entering the sixth. Unfortunately, the Reds broke through, scoring a run on back-to-back singles by De La Cruz and Stewart. After a mound visit, Sproat struck out Bleday. That was the last batter Sproat faced. He finished the day with 5 1/3 innings pitched, two runs allowed on four hits and two walks with seven strikeouts. Though the results haven’t been pretty, Sproat finished up a good month of June for him, and is hopefully putting it all together in the majors.
Chad Patrick entered in relief and kept the inherited runner at second, getting Suárez to pop out before striking out Nathaniel Lowe to end the inning.
The bullpens locked it down from there, with one exception. In the eighth inning, Chourio hit a two-out home run into the Brewers’ bullpen. It was his 12th of the season and 10th of the month, and extended the lead to 7-2.
Five different Brewers had multi-hit days. Bauers and Frelick led the day with three hits each. Chourio, Mitchell, and Ortiz added on two hits apiece. Hamilton and Yelich were the two Brewers who went hitless (though Yelich drew a walk). As a team, they went 5-for-11 with runners in scoring position and had a total of 14 hits, with only three of those going for extra bases.
In the bullpen, Patrick had 1 2/3 scoreless innings with a strikeout. Jared Koenig worked around a hit for a clean eighth inning. Grant Anderson finished the game with a hit allowed and two strikeouts in the ninth.
The Brewers have secured at least a split in this series against the Reds, but need one more win for a winning series and homestand. Game three is set for tomorrow night, but will have a 7:10 p.m. start because of an ESPN national broadcast. Shane Drohan faces Andrew Abbott in that game.
