An early statement for Brewers bats
There was early evidence that this might be the Milwaukee Brewers' night, finally.
Scoring a run in the first inning might not sound like much in the grand scheme of major-league baseball. For the Brewers, however, it had become more difficult than threading a needle in a hurricane.
So, when Justin Smoak delivered a run-scoring single with two down in the first inning Monday night against Cincinnati's mock beer-drinking ace Trevor Bauer (he had a strikeout promotion going with Budweiser), it was more than a minor footnote. The Brewers had gone 11 games without scoring in the opening frame, with a total of two runs for the season.
Even with that run, the Brewers have been outscored in the first two innings of games, 37-6, which tells you two additional things: 1. Their starting pitchers have given up too many early runs. 2. The Brewers have been playing from behind far too often.
Those trends were reversed as the Brewers opened a 10-game home stand with a badly needed 4-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds at Miller Park. Veteran left-hander Brett Anderson made sure his team would play from ahead in this one by keeping the Reds off the board until the sixth inning.
It was a huge challenge for one of the worst offenses in the majors against Bauer, who entered the game with a 3-0 record and 0.68 ERA, with 41 strikeouts in 261⁄3 innings. Bauer dominated the Brewers on the same field 17 days earlier, allowing only three hits and one run over six innings while striking out 12 hitters.
This time, the Brewers built a 4-0 lead in the first four innings as Smoak delivered again in the third with a tworun blast into the second deck in right. Omar Narváez, whose season-opening slump had reached epic proportions before a two-hit day Sunday in Pittsburgh, kept it going with a leadoff homer in the fourth, his first with Milwaukee.
Anderson makes his living by inducing groundouts, so a bit of a red flag went up in the sixth when the Reds pounded four fly balls, including a home run by Curt Casali.
Anderson, who said he changed his pitching pattern to keep hitters off his sinker, went back out for the seventh and immediately surrendered another homer by Eugenio Suárez to cut the Brewers' lead to 4-2.
Manager Craig Counsell then went to a three-reliever formula that had worked well in the past, with Devin Williams, David Phelps and Josh Hader delivering scoreless innings. Phelps had surrendered the gut-punch, two-run homer to Pittsburgh's Gregory Polanco in the eighth inning Sunday, allowing the Pirates to pull out a 5-4 victory and sweep the three-game series.
After Williams blew away all three hitters he faced in the seventh, giving him an astounding 23 strikeouts in 102⁄3 innings, Counsell gave the ball to Phelps again. Counsell never has hesitated to use a reliever after a tough outing and showed that confidence in Phelps, who responded with a 1-2-3 inning, including a strikeout of Jesse Winker, who has become the toughest out in the Reds' lineup.
After a brutal end to their 10-game swing through Chicago, Minnesota and Pittsburgh that ended with four consecutive losses, the Brewers opened a 10game home stand – longest of the season – with a much-needed victory.
Asked if starting this home stand with a victory was important, Smoak didn't hesitate.
“One hundred percent, especially after the last three days in Pittsburgh,” he said.
“That's not who we are as a team. We didn't play great but coming home, knowing we're going to be here for awhile and in a short season, you have to go out there every day and try to win ball games no matter how you do it.
“Our pitching has been great. We just have to score some runs and I feel like we're more than capable of doing that.”
RECORD
Overall: 12-15 entering Tuesday
COMING UP
Wednesday: Reds at Brewers, 7:10 p.m. Milwaukee RHP Adrian Houser (1-2, 3.72) vs. Cincinnati RHP Sonny Gray (4-1, 2.21). TV: FS Wisconsin. Radio: AM-620.