Brewers sneak away with 1-0 victory over Reds as pitching once again shines

Box Score

The Milwaukee Brewers turned back-to-back wins into a win streak Thursday night, as they took down the Cincinnati Reds 1-0 in another strong pitching performance from a depleted staff.

After the worst start of his MLB career, Nestor Cortes bounced back with one of the best starts of his career. He started the evening with a leadoff walk to TJ Friedl but didn’t allow much more from there. The next baserunner he allowed was a one-out double from Jose Trevino in the third. He walked Matt McLain two batters later, but he then kept the Reds off the bases through the end of the sixth.

Offensively, the Brewers weren’t much better.

They went down 1-2-3 in each of the first three frames as they swung early and often against Nick Lodolo. In the fourth, Jackson Chourio picked up the first hit of the day for Milwaukee with a ground-rule double over the wall in left-center.

After a Christian Yelich strikeout, William Contreras reached on an error — though it could’ve been ruled a hit — on a soft ground ball to first that Lodolo dropped at the bag. Rhys Hoskins couldn’t bring Chourio home as he hit a short flyout to right, but Sal Frelick came through in the clutch with another softly hit ground ball through the right side, making it 1-0.

Milwaukee’s busy inning was pretty much all they’d do offensively until the seventh inning, when Hoskins and Frelick started the inning off with back-to-back singles. Vinny Capra bunted both over to put runners at second and third with one out. Unfortunately, Isaac Collins hit into a fielder’s choice that cut Hoskins down at the plate, and reliever Scott Barlow escaped the inning with a groundout from Joey Ortiz.

An error by Capra allowed McLain to reach second with two outs and Elly De La Cruz at the plate in the top of the eighth, but Bryan Hudson got De La Cruz to ground out to Cincinnati off the board.

With Trevor Megill having pitched back-to-back days and three of the last four, Pat Murphy went to Joel Payamps for the save in the ninth.

Chourio started the inning off with a web gem as he made a great diving catch to rob Christian Encarnacion-Strand of a hit before making a more routine catch as Jeimer Candelario flew out. Payamps struck Wisconsin native Gavin Lux out to end the game as the Reds lost their third straight game by a 1-0 final, also extending their scoreless streak to 28-plus innings.

Frelick was the only player for either team with multiple hits, going 2-for-3 with an RBI. Brice Turang, Chourio, and Hoskins each added a hit as Milwaukee still managed to outhit Cincinnati, 5-2.

Cortes went six innings, allowing no runs on one hit and a pair of walks with six strikeouts. Elvis Peguero, Hudson, and Payamps each pitched a scoreless inning, as Peguero was the only one to allow any traffic via a hit and a walk. On the other side, Lodolo got a tough-luck loss, going 6 2⁄3 innings with one unearned run allowed on four hits and four strikeouts.

The Brewers will look to keep the win streak and the Reds’ scoreless streak going Friday night at home. Nick Martinez will start for Cincinnati, with the Brewers yet to announce a starter, though it seems likely that Tyler Alexander will get the start. First pitch is at 7:10 p.m. on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin and the Brewers Radio Network.