While not being the prettiest of wins, one day after winning a chance to play in October, the Brewers came back out and secured a win over the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ballpark to pull themselves within one game of the St. Louis Cardinals for the National League Central Division lead.
The win, a 5-3 victory over the Reds, was brought on by a hard fought performance by a pitching staff which has been consistently dominant over the course of the month, and driven by a breakthrough of four runs in the fourth inning.
After running through the Brewers line up through 3 innings Reds starter, Luis Castillo, began to lose control of his pitches. Throwing four straight change-ups for balls to Yasmani Grandal to lead off the inning, before walking Keston Hiura and Travis Shaw later in the inning. Sandwiched between Hiura and Shaw were a pair of outs from Manny Piña (Strikeout), and Cory Spangenburg (Fielder’s Choice). However, Orlando Arcia came up and knocked in three runs after Cincinnati Left Fielder Josh Vanmeter allowed the ball to slip right out of his glove on this tough play.
Ben Gamel would come up next and drive Arcia with a double, while the last Brewer run came courtesy of a Piña double in the fifth, and Castillo would finish with a line of 5 IP, 5 ER, 5H and 4BB.
Meanwhile a rocky start by Chase Anderson, turned into the average quality start for these Brewers starters, going five innings while only allowing one run. Relievers Guerra, Pomeranz, Williams, and Hader combined to hold the Reds to only two runs over the next four innings, and Hader got out of a bases loaded jam in the eighth on the way to his 37th save of the season.
As the Brewers go into the last series of the regular season, their eyes are set on another Division Title, and another series sweep over the Colorado Rockies, while the Cardinals get set to host the Cubs this weekend at Busch Stadium. The Brewers-Rockies series starts tomorrow at 7:10 CT at Coors Field.
Sconnie Sports Talk 