In the red again
Josh Hader falters in the ninth again as the Milwaukee Brewers lose their third straight to the Cincinnati Reds, 3-1.
This certainly wasn’t the way the Milwaukee Brewers had envisioned going into the all-star break.
For the second consecutive game, Josh Hader was unable to maintain a ninth-inning tie — this time allowing a two-out, tworun single to
Nick Castellanos that sealed a 3-1 loss to the
Cincinnati Reds at American
Family Field on
Sunday afternoon.
While the closer’s struggles were glaring, there was perhaps even more blame to be shouldered by an offense that managed a single run on five hits and six walks.
Brandon Woodruff allowed a season-high nine hits but otherwise recorded his 14th quality start for Milwaukee, which had three games shaved off what had been a sevengame lead in the Central Division standings in three days.
Even still, the Brewers sit in first place at the all-star break for just the sixth time in franchise history and first time since 2017.
After the all-star break, the two teams open the second half with a three-game series at Cincinnati.
“They came in here and took three from us, so it’s going to be a big series,” Woodruff said. “Anytime you play in division it’s always big, and they’re the ones chasing us right now.
“We played some close games here. It seems like they always play us really well here, and hopefully we can come out in the second half and win some ballgames at their place and keep it
rolling. It’s the ebb and the waves of the season. You can’t win them all.
“We’ve just got to keep plugging along and try to play good baseball in the second half and try to finish strong.”
In Saturday’s 4-3 loss, it was a leadoff homer by Eugenio Suárez that made the difference against Hader.
This time, the left-hander plunked the third baseman in the left elbow with his first pitch, leading Suárez to glare at the closer before making his way to first.
Kyle Farmer, up next, lifted a fly ball to deep right-center that Avisaíl García tracked but wasn’t able to reel in after mistakenly thinking he was closer to the wall than he was and making an unnecessary leaping attempt at the ball.
“It’s a long fly ball against the wall,” said manager Craig Counsell. “He ran a long way for it, tried to make the catch and couldn’t make it.”
That left two on and, after pinchhitter Alejo Lopez struck out, the top of the order coming up.
Jonathan India battled Hader to an eight-pitch walk, loading the bases. Then Hader struck out one of the Reds’ two all-star sluggers, Jesse Winker, with a slider way out of the zone.
That brought Castellanos to the plate, and two pitches in he sent a fastball into center for a two-RBI single that silenced the crowd.
Hader (3-2) was lifted at that point for Jake Cousins, who got Joey Votto to fly out.
“The other teams are trying to score, man,” said Counsell. “They’re trying to get him. There’s nothing to note.”
Then the offense, on cue, went down in order in the bottom of the ninth against Josh Osich to seal the disappointing series.
It had been a day of offensive frustration for the Brewers against Luis Castillo and the sixth opened in similar fashion with García striking out.
Jace Peterson followed by drawing a walk, ending Castillo’s day at 102 pitches. The free pass was his sixth on the afternoon, and would prove costly to him.
Amir Garrett took over and struck out pinch-hitter Keston Hiura on three pitches, but not before Peterson stole second base to get himself into scoring position for Jackie Bradley Jr.
A .125 hitter against left-handers coming into the game, Bradley took Garrett’s first two offerings for called strikes before beating the shift by pulling a single through the hole on the right side to score Peterson and tie the game.
The RBI was the first in a week for Bradley.
Brad Boxberger threw a scoreless seventh, then there was some weirdness in the bottom half of the frame.
First, Reds reliever Art Warren had to be removed from the game in a 2-2 count with Christian Yelich at the plate after suffering an injury. Sean Doolittle replaced Warren, then was afforded ample time to warm up before getting Yelich to ground out.
With two outs, Willy Adames blooped a single to short right field then stole second to again set up a potential run-scoring hit — this time by Omar Narváez.
Adames had easily beaten the throw of catcher Tyler Stephenson, but second baseman India’s foot had blocked Adames’ foot from the base as he slid in, and India kept the tag applied.
Manager David Bell challenged the safe call of Doug Eddings, and it was overturned on replay — continuing Milwaukee’s headaches with the umpires in a testy four-game series.
Cincinnati jumped on Woodruff for a first-inning run after a Winker single, Castellanos double and Votto single.
Two singles in the second and two more in the fourth left the Reds with eight — already one more than Woodruff allowed in any of his previous 18 starts — but still only the one run.
The Brewers, meanwhile, had action on the bases in three of the first four innings against Castillo but were unable to parlay any of it into a run.
Their best opportunity came in the fourth after Avisaíl García’s one-out single and two-out walks drawn by Rowdy Tellez and Jackie Bradley Jr. loaded the bases, but Woodruff struck out.
Woodruff also lined out to right with two on and two out in the second.
The fifth ended in more frustration for Milwaukee.
After Yelich singled and Willy Adames walked to put two on with one out, Narváez followed with a line drive back up the middle only to see Castillo glove it and throw over to Votto at first to double Adames off and end the threat.
Woodruff capped his day by facing the minimum in the sixth, erasing a leadoff single with an eventual 5-4-3, inning-ending double play. He allowed nine hits — many of them soft contact — didn’t issue a walk and struck out four in 106 pitches.
“I feel like they had a really good approach,” Woodruff said. “I knew what they were wanting to do early on and I just didn’t execute some pitches there, right off the bat. I made a little bit of an adjustment but they were tough atbats.
“I just wasn’t really able to locate the one and two the way I wanted to, and I think for me it comes down to fastball command, There’s several times where I’d have two strikes and just didn’t make a pitch, and they do what good good hitting teams do: they make you pay for it. They were able to get some hits there.
“It seemed like there was just traffic all day.”