The Brewers suffered from some tough luck in this game, which led to five unearned runs against the two young pitchers who were tasked with putting together the first five innings of this game for the Brewers, Robert Gasser and Jacob Misiorowski. But that bad luck and some poorly timed mistakes gave the Reds six runs in the third inning, and while the Brewer offense wasn’t as bad or as lifeless as it has looked at times recently, All-Star Andrew Abbott and the Reds’ bullpen did enough to hold Milwaukee off in what was a must-win game for the Reds. But the lowly Twins, playing in Philadelphia, did the Brewers a favor, and the Brewers had one last thing to celebrate this regular season despite the loss.
The Brewers got underway just as the Twins took a 3-0 lead in Philadelphia (but only in the fifth inning). Gasser got the leadoff hitter, TJ Friedl, to pop out to Caleb Durbin in foul territory. Noelvi Marte struck out for the second out, and it looked like Gasser was out of the inning when Miguel Andujar hit a line drive to left that looked catchable. But Isaac Collins took one wrong step, and it sank faster than he thought, and he couldn’t make a sliding catch. Andujar was given a hit, and Spencer Steer came back from a 1-2 count to draw a walk. Gasser struck out Sal Stewart, though, and Collins’ defensive miscue didn’t cost the Brewers anything except a few extra pitches.
Christian Yelich was the first batter for the Brewers, and he started by hitting a ball up the middle that Matt McLain dove for and stopped, but not in time to get Yelich at first. Jackson Chourio hit a line drive, but right at Ke’Bryan Hayes, and he was the first out. Brice Turang flew out to Steer in foul territory on a ball that was about as close to the net as it could possibly be without hitting it, and Andrew Vaughn hit a line drive to right, but it was caught by Marte. The inning ended with Yelich still standing at first.
Elly De La Cruz knocked Gasser’s first pitch of the second inning into left just under the glove of a diving Joey Ortiz for a leadoff single. Tyler Stephenson, on a 2-2 pitch, was grazed by a sinker that snuck a little too far inside, and the Reds had runners on first and second with nobody out. Hayes was next, and he hit a grounder up the middle that Turang played on a slide. There was no chance for a double play as Turang needed to cross the bag to make the play behind second base, but he did at least retire Hayes at first.
McLain was up with runners on second and third and one out, and the Brewer infield playing at regular depth. McLain hit a grounder right at Durbin, who fired home and nailed De La Cruz at the plate for the second out. Friedl still had a chance with two on, but he grounded out to Vaughn at first, and Gasser had worked his way out of a jam.
Abbott had a quick second — just seven pitches — when Collins flew out to shallow left, Durbin grounded out to third, and Perkins was thrown out by Hayes at first while trying to bunt for a hit. (He almost made it on a really close play, but Hayes, one of the best defensive players of this century, may not be the greatest target for that bunt).
Marte started the third with a weak grounder back to Gasser, but his throw to first was wide and pulled Vaughn off the bag. Cincinnati had a baserunner on an E1, which became a bigger issue when Andujar smoked the first pitch he got into left. Collins took a dive but missed it, and Andujar was into second with a double, with Marte holding at third. For the second straight inning, the Reds had runners on second and third with less than two outs.
As Jacob Misiorowski warmed in the bullpen, Gasser got a big first out with a strikeout of Steer. But Stewart nearly killed Gasser with the next pitch, a line drive right back up the middle that went into center field for an RBI single. It was hit hard enough that Andujar had to hold at third, which gave Gasser a chance to escape with limited damage. De La Cruz popped out to shallow left for the second out, but a two-out walk of Stephenson to load the bases prompted Pat Murphy to go to the bullpen for Misiorowski. Pretty hardcore to bring Miz into a bases-loaded situation when he’s been struggling with command lately.
Miz did what he needed to do, but the baseball gods must really hate the Mets. After a curveball down the middle for strike one and a 102.6-mph fastball that was fouled off, Hayes hit a swinging bunt that no one could get to. Everyone was safe, another run was in, and Misiorowski lost his composure. A walk of McLain scored another run (a 2-1 pitch should’ve been called a strike but was not), and Friedl, in a full count, hit a single to left. It was a pretty soft liner, but it was in the right spot. The hit scored two, and a throwing error by Collins — who threw to a vacant third base — scored a third. Marte grounded out to third, but the Reds were up 6-0.
Danny Jansen got a little BABIP luck of his own by starting the bottom of the third with a bloop single to center. Joey Ortiz (Joey Ortiz!) then nearly hit one out, settling instead for a double high off the wall in center, which Statcast had at 102 mph and 406 feet. Yelich got the Brewers on the board with an RBI groundout (which also advanced Ortiz to third), but Chourio failed to get the run home from third with one out when he struck out. Thankfully, Turang hit one deep into the left-field corner — it was high enough that Steer got to it and got a glove on it, but he was running in an awkward direction and couldn’t haul it in. Turang had an RBI double, and Vaughn hit one hard, but Hayes was able to throw him out after initially knocking it down. Reds lead 6-2 after three.
Milwaukee sent Miz back out after his traumatic, 20-pitch third inning. Andujar, leading off, hit another hard line drive to center, already his third hit of the game in just the fourth inning. Steer hit a 3-1 fastball to deep right, but Chourio caught it on the warning track for the first out. Misiorowski struck Stewart out looking with a fastball on the outer edge, but De La Cruz drew a two-out walk to put runners at first and second for Stephenson. Miz struck him out looking on three pitches, and he had a scoreless, though not flawless, fourth inning.
Collins struck out to start the bottom of the fourth. Abbott did a Gasser impersonation when Durbin hit a weak comebacker to him that was thrown wide of first base, allowing Durbin to reach with one out. But Perkins hit a soft liner to short that De La Cruz played on a short hop, enabling him to activate a 6-4-3 double play.
As Hayes stepped to the plate to start the fifth, Kody Funderburk struck out Nick Castellanos to close out a 5-0 Twins victory over the Phillies, and the Brewers officially clinched the best record in baseball. Let not this night’s — and these last few weeks’ — lackluster play overshadow that remarkable accomplishment. At American Family Field, Hayes flew out to Chourio for out number one. McLain followed with a walk, Friedl also flew out to Chourio, and Marte struck out swinging to end the inning.
Jansen hit one to the warning track in center leading off the bottom of the fifth, but it held up for Friedl. Ortiz struck out looking, and Yelich struck out swinging, and Abbott had a 1-2-3 inning.
Grant Anderson replaced Misiorowski in the sixth. (Misiorowski finished with 2 1/3 innings, three hits, two runs, one earned run, three walks, and three strikeouts; the walks were bad, but some terrible batted ball luck in the third made it look much worse than it was.) Anderson finally got Andujar out on a pop-up, and he got Steer on a liner to short (aided by a leaping catch by Ortiz). But with two outs and nobody on, Stewart got a fastball right down the pipe and hit it into the Reds’ bullpen to extend Cincinnati’s lead to five. De La Cruz struck out to end the inning, but it was now 7-2.
Chourio paid Stewart back by leading off the bottom of the sixth with a solo shot to center. Abbott faced one more hitter, Turang, who he got to ground out to first. The Reds then turned to right-hander Connor Phillips, who began his night by walking Vaughn on four pitches. Collins was then hit on the foot by a 2-2 pitch, and the Brewers had a couple of runners on with one out. After a mound visit, Phillips threw two more balls to Durbin, but he flew out to left on a 2-1 pitch for the second out. Sensing an opportunity, Murphy sent Jake Bauers to the plate in place of Perkins, and while he didn’t pop a three-run homer, Bauers did come through with a single to left that scored Vaughn from second.
With Jansen coming up as the tying run, Terry Francona went back to his bullpen and retrieved another right-hander, Graham Ashcraft. Jansen got a beautiful pitch to hit on 3-1, a cutter right down the middle, but fouled it off; he fouled off a couple more pitches before taking a pitch just high for ball four, which loaded the bases for, who else? Ortiz. He grounded out softly to first, and the inning ended in disappointment, but the Brewers had cut Cincinnati’s lead to 7-4.
Vaughn snagged a Stephenson line drive to start the seventh, and Hayes struck out on three pitches for the second out. McLain lined a two-out single to the new center fielder, Chourio, and Murphy at that point moved to the bullpen for Rob Zastryzny to face the lefty Friedl. That was the right move, as Friedl popped out to Ortiz to end the inning.
The Reds turned to Nick Martinez to face the top of the Brewer order in the seventh. He quickly got Yelich and Chourio (a strikeout and a flyout), but Turang drew a two-out walk. That gave Vaughn a chance, but he grounded into a fielder’s choice that ended the inning.
The Brewers gave Carlos Rodriguez a shot in the eighth. He struck out Marte and Andujar looking, then walked Steer with two outs in an eight-pitch at-bat. Will Benson, who’d entered defensively for Stewart in the sixth, attacked the first pitch he got and very nearly hit it out, but Bauers, who was now playing right field, caught it up against the wall for the third out.
Collins led off the bottom of the eighth with a single up the middle. Durbin struck out on three pitches for the first out, and Bauers, to his frustration, popped out on a 90-mph cutter down the middle. Jansen jumped on the first pitch and hit a solid line drive, but he didn’t quite as hard as it looked off the bat, and Benson caught it in left for the third out.
Rodriguez struck out De La Cruz and Stephenson before issuing a two-out walk to Hayes in the ninth. McLain reached on a tapper that was hit between first and second — Turang was playing way up the middle, so there was no one there to make the play. A cheap infield hit that extended the inning, but Rodriguez struck out Friedl, too, to end the inning. A nice little outing for Rodriguez, who had five strikeouts in two scoreless innings.
Reds closer Emilio Pagán entered in the bottom of the ninth on what was his fourth consecutive day pitching, the only time in his career that he’s done that. He opened against pinch-hitter Sal Frelick, who replaced Ortiz in the lineup. Frelick struck out on a high 2-2 fastball for out number one. Yelich popped up the first pitch he got behind third base, where it was caught be De La Cruz for the second out. Chourio grounded out after a bit of a battle, and the Reds won, 7-4.
The Brewers were undone in this one by one big inning, one in which they could have felt some injustice; not only did the Reds benefit from a throwing error by Gasser in that inning, it should have been over at least once before they racked up six runs, but the ball didn’t roll their way today.
But the Brewers could take solace in the fact that their regional rival, the Minnesota Twins, did them a solid by beating the Phillies and thus ensuring the Brewers would finish as the top seed in the playoffs. The Reds, meanwhile, have a “win-and-you’re-in” scenario tomorrow; a sweep of the Brewers guarantees them a postseason spot. They would also make the postseason regardless of their result tomorrow if the Mets were to lose to Miami, but all of tomorrow’s games start at the same time, and the Reds will not have the benefit of knowing New York’s outcome.
This wasn’t a disastrous offensive game for Milwaukee, but it wasn’t a good one, either. No one had more than one hit, but Ortiz and Turang hit doubles, and Chourio had a solo homer, his 21st of the season. Gasser and Misiorowski likely did not make the Brewers’ decisions when it comes to the third starter position in the postseason any easier, as the two of them combined for six runs on seven hits and five walks in five innings. It’s true that none of Gasser’s runs were earned and only one of Miz’s was, but still, not a ton of confidence here, I expect.
The Brewers (and everyone else) will wrap up their season tomorrow afternoon at 2:10 p.m. CT when Brady Singer takes the ball for the Reds against Freddy Peralta (who is not expected to throw a whole lot of pitches).
