CINCINNATI — At a time within the season the place actually each recreation counts, the Milwaukee Brewers merely could not afford what occurred on Sunday afternoon at Nice American Ball Park.
The offense as soon as once more wasn’t capable of get to left-hander Nick Lodolo, an early baserunning miscue killed some valuable momentum and an eighth-inning residence run surrendered by Matt Bush proved to be the kill shot in a 2-1 loss to the The Cincinnati Reds that denied the Brewers their first four-game sweep right here since 2003.
Extra necessary, they gave proper again the half-game they’d gained within the Nationwide League wild-card race the evening earlier than, and can return to American Household Area for the ultimate 9 video games of the season needing an enormous homestand as a way to not be ignored of the postseason for the primary time since 2017.
Whereas the San Diego Padres received later Sunday the Philadelphia Phillies didn’t, which means the Brewers stay 1 video games out of the third wild card.
“We gave ourselves an opportunity on this homestand,” stated Brewers supervisor Craig Counsell. “We’ll need to win lots of video games, there is not any query about it, however we purchased ourselves homestand. We purchased ourselves days into the homestand.
“We’ll need to be good on the homestand. We’ll need to be actually good. However we’re able to it, and the truth that we’re at residence is an effective factor.”
BOX SCORE: Reds 2, Brewers 1
Bush, showing for the third time within the collection, was the sixth Milwaukee pitcher in behind Freddy Peralta, who had been reinstated from the injured listing previous to the sport and was beginning for the primary time since Sept. 8.
5 pitches in, the right-hander made the error of hanging a 1-2 fastball to Spencer Steer and he drove it out to middle for simply his second major-league homer.
The homer was the fifth allowed by Bush since being traded to Milwaukee on Aug. 1.
Willy Adames, Christian Yelich and Hunter Renfroe all struck out within the ninth.
It was a becoming end to a irritating day that featured loads of dangerous luck for the bats, together with what seemed to be a surefire two-run homer off the bat of Tyrone Taylor dying on the warning monitor in proper within the fifth and a 1- 5-3, inning-ending double play within the seventh on a Rowdy Tellez shot again by the field.
“We did not create many scoring alternatives at the moment,” Counsell conceded.
The Brewers – who’d totaled 20 runs within the first three video games of the collection together with 10 of their win Saturday – seemed to be carrying that mojo over to the collection finale when Renfroe hit a first-pitch homer out to right-center within the second.
It was his fourth in two video games and eighth at Nice American Ball Park this season, a brand new file for a visiting participant. The shot additionally gave the Brewers 44 homers in 19 video games towards the Reds this season, tied for essentially the most ever by one staff towards one other within the Nationwide League.
And Milwaukee saved the strain on Lodolo, who’d dominated them in Milwaukee on Sept. 9 when he pitched a career-high eight innings and struck out 11 in a Cincinnati victory.
Mike Brosseau adopted the homer by singling, then after a flyout, Keston Hiura doubled off the wall in right-center.
However Victor Caratini adopted by hanging out and Taylor lined up a single up the center solely to hit Hiura within the leg, a play that resulted within the third out quite than scoring two runs.
“Two outs, I am on second base. I am off on the crack of the bat,” Hiura stated. “As quickly as he made contact, I took off. You need to rating on a base hit. He hammered it. It had a bit of high spin to it so I believed it was going to only get by me.
“I believed I may step to get by him but it surely hit that again leg. If it goes by, it is in all probability a success and an RBI or two. I used to be simply going off the crack of the bat and he drilled it.”
Lodolo obtained dialed again in rapidly after the second and restricted the Brewers to 1 stroll from the third by the sixth, concluding his day by hanging out Adames, Yelich and Renfroe.
He induced eight ground-ball outs along with hanging out six.
“Actually, he is only a massive arm,” Hiura stated. “He is obtained sort of a jerky movement so it appears prefer it’s coming at you fast. He throws within the mid-, higher 90s, high of the zone. Then at the moment, it appeared like he was mixing in additional sliders and changeups, so he undoubtedly was conserving hitters off-balance.
“I believed we had some fairly good swings off him at the moment. Clearly, he is had success within the second half for a purpose.”
Peralta, in the meantime, threw 44 pitches over two innings, topping out at 95.6 mph together with his fastball — an excellent signal following his bout of shoulder fatigue. He allowed two hits and a stroll and struck out three earlier than making manner for Aaron Ashby within the third.
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“He was a unique pitcher,” Counsell stated. “I believe we noticed that he was a unique pitcher.”
Ashby, in the meantime, was shaky to say the least in what turned out to be a 1 -inning, 40-pitch look.
He hit the primary batter he confronted in TJ Friedl however caught a serious break when, with two outs, Friedl was caught too far off third by Caratini on a squibber down the third-base line and tagged out.
Ashby’s luck ran out within the fourth when he allowed a leadoff single, walked a pair with one out after which hit No. 9 hitter Austin Romine with a pitch after getting forward within the rely, 1-2.
That tied the sport and ended his day, with Peter Strzelecki approaching to strand the bases loaded. Trevor Gott and Brad Boxberger adopted with scoreless innings however Bush wasn’t capable of observe go well with within the decisive eighth.
The bit of fine information to come back out of the loss was Peralta and Ashby needs to be in place to pitch deeper into video games shifting ahead — a key when it is going to be all palms on deck for the Brewers towards the incoming St. Louis Cardinals, adopted by the Miami Marlins and Arizona Diamondbacks.
“I can do extra, and I really feel actually good doing extra,” Peralta stated. “It is simply time to be on one other degree, is how I really feel these video games are sort of totally different. I am able to see what’s coming for us.”
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This text initially appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers offense hits velocity bump in 2-1 loss to Reds
