And they were muzzled by a pitcher making his second major league start, a pitcher from Division II Purdue-Fort Wayne who was the 107th overall pick in the 2021 draft.
Chad Patrick, a 23-year-old right-hander, pitched like Tom Seaver, holding the Reds to one run and two hits over 5⅓ innings for his first major league win.
Patrick is only in the rotation because seven Milwaukee starting pitchers are on the injured list. And it makes it easier for any pitcher when the Reds’ lineup contains players hitting .048, .125,.187 and .187.
Amazingly, though, Patrick was 14-1 with a 2.90 earned run average last season at Class AAA Nashville. He won the International league triple crown for pitchers with his 14 wins, his 2.99 ERA and his 145 strikeouts.
But the Brewers never called him up last season and only did so this season out of necessity.
Patrick is a two-trick pony, using a fastball and a cutter. He stayed in the upper quadrant of the strike zone and induced nine weak pop-up and fly balls out of the 16 Reds he retired.
Cincinnati’s record dipped to 3-7, a last-place tie with Pittsburgh after collecting only five hits Sunday.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Milwaukee took three of four games in the series as the Reds continue playing patsies for the Brewers. They’ve lost 22 of their last 30 to Milwaukee, seven of them shutouts.
Milwaukee loaded its line-up with left-handed hitters, negating Reds starter Carson Spiers’ best pitch, a sweeper.
The Brewers took him apart for four runs and five hits over 3⅓ innings and three runs and two hits in only two-thirds of an inning by Sam Moll.
“Their left-handers gave (Spiers) a tough time and he just couldn’t get things going,” said Reds manager Terry Francona.
The Brewers, masters of small ball, scored two runs in the third on a sacrifice fly by Jackson Chourio and a single by slump-ridden Christian Yelich.
It was only the beginning for Chourio who followed his sacrifice fly with a pair of home runs and drove in five.
The Brewers scored five runs in the fourth to put down the Reds quickly.
It began with singles by Sal Frelick and Jake Bauers. Then came more small ball.
A sacrifice bunt put runners on second and third and Moll replaced Spiers.
Moll’s first pitch was a wild pitch that scored a run. Moll’s second pitch was to Oliver Dunn and he bunted. The ball appeared as if it might roll foul, but first baseman Christian Encarnacion-Strand fielded it in fair territory as the second run of the inning scored.
Francona saw the bunt fielded by Encarnacion-Strand differently and said, “If he lets it go, it’s going to be a hit. That’s the only play he could make.”
The play was for CES to tag the bunter, Dunn, while the run scored from third.
Moll then walked No. 9 hitter Eric Haase, Brice Turang singled and Chourio unloaded his first homer, a three-run blast to make it 7-0.
Turang, Milwaukee’s leadoff hitter had two hits and scored twice and extended a hitting streak to 13 games, dating back to the end of last season.
Chourio, who finished third in the Rookie of the Year balloting last season, is on a nine-game hitting streak. His second homer of the game, this one off Ian Gibaut, pushed Milwaukee’s advantage to 8-1.
Down 7-0, the Reds scored in the fifth, a home run by Spencer Steer, the Reds’ second hit of the game.
The second run came in the eighth on Jake Fraley’s double and TJ Friedl’s single.
“That was a good swing,” Francona said about Steer’s home run. “That should give him some confidence...on a tough day you’re looking for something to hang your hat on.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Elly De La Cruz had the Reds’ first hit, a single in the first, then he was caught trying to steal second base, then he struck out three straight times.
Steer led the third with a walk, but stayed anchored on first. The Reds drew two two-out walks in the fourth, but Encarnacion-Strand struck out.
The degree of difficulty takes an upward turn. The Reds flew to San Francisco after the game for the start of a three-game series against the belligerent Giants.
While most focused on the fast starts by the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres in the National League West, the Giants have been just as good in the NL West, winning seven of their first eight games.
And Monday’s match-up is the same as it was Opening Day in Cincinnati, the Reds’ Hunter Greene against San Francisco’s Logan Webb.
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