Cincinnati got strong pitching on the day from Chase Burns and Rhett Lowder, but the defense and the offense didn’t hold up their end of the deal on Tuesday evening in Milwaukee. The Brewers took a lead in the 2nd inning and never gave it back as they held on for a 4-1 win in the last spring training game of the year.
The Highlights
Chase Burns struck out the side in the bottom of the 1st inning. He then retired the first two hitters of the 2nd, but Jake Bauers got a 1-2 change up in the middle of the zone and he sent it to the concourse in right-center for a solo home run to put the Brewers up 1-0. That would be the last hit he would give up until the bottom of the 5th when Jake Bauers led off with a double. He would score later in the inning on a single by David Hamilton.
With the score 2-0 after five, the Reds offense finally struck in the 6th when Elly De La Cruz hit a home run the other way and into the seats in right field to lead off the inning and cut the lead to a run for Milwaukee. Rhett Lowder took over for Cincinnati in the bottom of the inning after Chase Burns struck out seven batters without a walk on 68 pitches that saw him throw 53 strikes. He had to work around an error in the 6th but he was able to do that.
In the bottom of the 7th Sal Frelick got on base after another fielding error by Nathaniel Lowe to begin the inning. Lowder came back with a strikeout, but then gave up three straight singles that produced two runs as the Brewers extended their lead to 4-1. Back-to-back groundouts followed to end the inning. The next inning was much easier as Lowder threw 10 pitches to get three outs and send the game to the 9th. Cincinnati would get a single from P.J. Higgins in the top of the 9th, but that was all they could muster as they fell to Milwaukee in the final game before Opening Day.
You can see the box score for this game here.
News and Notes
Chase Burns recorded seven strikeouts on the day. Every strikeout was on a swing and a miss. He had 13 swings and misses on the day.
Rhett Lowder allowed one earned run in 3.0 innings with no walks and three strikeouts. He threw 36 strikes out of his 50 pitches in the game.
Ke’Bryan Hayes was the only Reds hitter to reach base twice in the game. He went 2-3 with two singles.
Joey Votto donated a clock to the city of Cincinnati and the Reds and it has been installed at the front of Great American Ball Park. If we don’t unofficially name this thing “The Votto Clocko” then we don’t deserve good things in life.
Photo from the Cincinnati Reds
There is no game on Wednesday. But on Thursday we get the real shebang! Opening Day is nearly upon us. We’ll have plenty of stuff here at Redleg Nation on Wednesday and Thursday before the game to cover the on-goings for the day that is, the Redleg Nation writer predictions, and maybe even some news if things pop up.
