Double dip of disappointment vs. Reds
There was nothing memorable about the first doubleheader in Miller Park history for the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday.
Their entire offense was out-performed by Cincinnati’s two-man wrecking crew of Jesse Winker and Nick Castellanos as the Brewers were soundly beaten in both ends of a doubleheader, 6-1 and 6-0.
Winker homered twice and he and Castellanos totaled nine hits – one more than the output of Milwaukee’s entire offense – over the two seven-inning games. They also combined to drive in seven runs and score six as the Reds earned a split in the series.
An Omar Narváez solo homer in the sixth inning of Game 1 barely kept the Brewers from the indignity of being shut out in consecutive games, and an infield hit by Luis Urías was all that stood between them and being no-hit in the second.
“It has not been a successful first half for a lot of our lineup, for most of our lineup,” said manager Craig Counsell, whose team is 13-17 at the official midway point. “So, it’s got to be better and I think there’s reason to think it will be better because they have proven themselves in this league.
“There are some great players that are struggling for us right now. I really believe it’s going to be better. But it needs to happen soon.”
The twin bill was a result of the teams’ decision not to play their game Wednesday as scheduled in the wake of the Jacob Blake incident earlier this week in Kenosha. Several other games were postponed across baseball later Wednesday night and Thursday as other organizations followed suit.
“It was a very emotional day,” Brewers Game 2 starter Josh Lindblom said, referring to Wednesday. “I think when we left the field yesterday we knew that we were going to have to show up ready to play two games.
“I think we were ready. I don’t think that yesterday affected anything by any means.”
Cincinnati grabbed the lead in the second inning of Game 1 on a Curt Casali RBI single and in the third Castellanos and Winker homered in consecutive at-bats to make it 3-0.
Castellanos legged out a hustle double to open the fifth and send Houser (1-3) to the showers having matched a seasonhigh by allowing nine hits for the second consecutive start.
Counsell then went with left-hander Alex Claudio to match up against the lefty Winker, but Winker foiled that strategy by homering to left to stretch the Reds’ advantage to 5-0.
Houser was tagged with a season-high four runs for the second straight start as well, upping his ERA to 4.36.
Cincinnati tacked on a run against J.P. Feyereisen on a Castellanos sacrifice fly in the sixth, leaving Castellanos and Winker a combined 6 for 6 with five runs batted in and four runs scored to that point.
The Brewers managed four singles and two walks against Sonny Gray (4-1) in five innings. Narváez took Nate Jones deep in the sixth, his second homer this week.
The Brewers again played from behind in the nightcap, with consecutive two-out RBI singles by No. 8 hitter Kyle Farmer and No. 9 hitter Tucker Barnhart in the second putting Lindblom (1-2) in a quick 2-0 hole.
The early surge continued a seasonlong trend for Milwaukee, which has now been outscored, 40-6, in the opening two innings through its first 30 games.
Former Brewer left-hander Wade Miley, who entered 0-3 with a 9.72 earned run average, limited the Brewers to the Urías infield single and a walk over four innings.
To see Milwaukee hit enough to beat Trevor Bauer and Luis Castillo in the first two games of the series and then struggle against the likes of Miley typified the head-scratching performance of the offense so far.
“We’re making it harder on ourselves right now. Making it really hard to win games,” said Counsell. “Making our pitching be perfect to win games. That’s a pretty big burden for them. So, we’ve got to be better offensively, there’s no question about it.”
Not long after consecutive RBI doubles by Castellanos and Winker -- who else? -made it 4-0 in the fifth with Freddy Peralta on the mound, Counsell was ejected by home-plate umpire John Bacon.
Eugenio Suárez’s two-run homer on the heels of a Winker single came off 29th man Justin Grimm in the seventh and capped the scoring.
“Frustrating day of baseball. It wasn’t very much fun,” Lindblom said. “The way the series started, we played two really, really good games. And then to come out today and split the series, that was tough.”
As if the day couldn’t have gotten any worse, catcher Manny Piña was forced to leave in the second inning after drawing a walk with what the Brewers called a rightknee injury. He was replaced by Narváez.
The doubleheader was the first played in Milwaukee since Sept. 23, 2000, when the Brewers split a doubleheader with the Pittsburgh Pirates at County Stadium.