Homers provide bang offense needs
CINCINNATI – Once again, when they were absent the best reliever in baseball, the other arms in the Milwaukee Brewers bullpen stepped up.
Miguel Sanchez, Devin Williams and Brad Boxberger recorded eight outs to protect a one-run lead and give the Brewers a 5-4 win over the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park on Friday, a much-needed victory as they attempt to work their way out of an extended funk.
The final play of the game was the exact sort of break that has gone the other way for Milwaukee over their previous 15 games, 12 of which were losses.
With two on and two outs in the ninth, Reds pinch-hitter Joey Votto lofted a high fly to deep right-center that came just a few feet short of a walk-off, three-run homer and into centerfielder Tyrone Taylor’s glove.
Even for the homer-happy Reds’ home park, it was an evening of dingers.
Each team blasted three home runs and all nine runs scored came via the long ball.
Hunter Renfroe, Willy Adames and Keston Hiura launched the homers for the Brewers.
Eric Lauer gave up three, as well, in his start for the Brewers but was able to pick up his first win since May 26.
“At the end of the day, every win matters regardless of who you’re playing or what time of the year it is,” Hiura said. “In previous years, we made an emphasis on each win matters at the end of the year, especially when there’s close races at the end of the year. It was great to see everyone contribute, top to bottom, the ’pen, Lauer, as well.”
Hiura’s homer breaks a confusing trend
What was most notable about Hiura’s go-ahead homer wasn’t that it came after sparse playing time recently or after he struck out in his first two at-bats or that he jumped on a first pitch from reliever Ross Detwiler to hit it.
It was the fact that it came against a left-handed pitcher.
Typically, righty hitters fare better against lefties than they do against righties. The same goes for lefthanded hitters against righties.
Some players, though, have reverse splits and perform better against pitchers throwing from the same side that they hit from.
Then there is Hiura, who entering Friday night’s game was batting .111 with a .311 OPS and no extra-base hits in 50 plate appearances against southpaws in 2022. Considering that Hiura has mashed righthanders for a 1.140 OPS, his splits have gone beyond any conventional logic.
“Confounding is a good word. It’s confusing,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “It’s very unusual in this league right now. But we had him in there tonight for a reason and he did a nice job.”
Hiura has said both in the past and again Friday that he has never paid much attention to platoon splits or which side the pitcher is throwing from.
“It’s never been a thought on my mind,” Hiura said. “It’s just going up there and competing, being able to compete with every single pitch in every single at-bat.”
But could a homer against a lefty provide some much-needed confidence for those spots moving forward?
“Yeah, definitely,” Hiura said. “I mean, I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again. Obviously, regardless of righty or lefty it’s good to get one out of the ballpark.”
Lauer’s final line wasn’t as good as it could have been
Lauer had been cruising, retiring the first eight batters he faced and 13 of the first 15 when Mike Moustakas roped a one-out single in the fifth.
It was all downhill after that and at a steep decline.
Albert Almora turned on an 0-1 fastball and launched it high and into the left-field bleachers to cut the deficit to 4-2. It wasn’t a particularly bad pitch from Lauer, catching the inside corner in the lower third, but his first two deliveries of the sixth inning caught much more plate.
Brandon Drury took Lauer’s opening pitch of the sixth and sent a middle-middle curve out for another skying homer out to left.
Tommy Pham followed by lining a first-pitch fastball out to the opposite field in right to tie the game at 4.
It was the second straight game giving up three homers for Lauer. Both times, the first long ball didn’t come until the fifth inning; last time out in Washington, the Nationals took Lauer deep back-to-back-to-back.
Still, Lauer was able to give the Brewers something they have longingly needed in a close game: length from their starting pitcher.
He lasted 61⁄3 innings and in doing so recorded the first out in the seventh inning by a Brewers starter since Jason Alexander on June 1.
“That’s something we haven’t been able to get lately, unfortunately, and Eric’s pitch count was in a great spot,” Counsell said. “He gave up some homers, unfortunately, again. That’s what’s bit him lately, the home runs. The first three innings, he was incredible, right? It was electric stuff and lots of swing and miss. To pitch into the seventh with what we have going on in the bullpen is a big deal.”
The homers spoiled what was shaping up to be a very strong outing from Lauer, but his underlying metrics would indicate Friday was a step in the right direction after allowing eight runs and 11 base runners the last time out.
Lauer generated 31 combined called and swinging strikes on 91 pitches, good for 34.1% of his total offerings. That number was the third-highest of the season for Lauer and eight-best of his career.
Renfroe keeps heating up
Tuesday night against the Mets, Renfroe, mired in the middle of a minor slump, blistered a ball against pitcher Chris Bassitt at 106 mph and bound for the left-center gap. It had all the makings of a double, save for one minor detail: Baseball can be a cruel game sometimes.
Mets centerfielder Brandon Nimmo chased it down, leaving his feet for a sensational catch that made the Brewers rightfielder 3 for his last 26.
The swing, however, was a harbinger of things to come, the Brewers hoped.
Renfroe is now in one of those stretches in which his bat provides much-needed thump in the lineup.
He opened the scoring Friday with a blistering three-run homer on a line to left that, when it landed, had seemingly barely reached its apex. It was Renfroe’s eighth time reaching base in his 11 plate appearances dating back to Wednesday, the day immediately following his scorched lineout to Nimmo.
That stretch included a career-high three walks in a 10-2 win over the Mets, an early indication that not only was Renfroe seeing the ball well but, just as importantly, he wasn’t pressing despite his lack of results since returning from a hamstring injury.
The homer was Renfroe’s only hit of the night but proved to the biggest one in terms of runs produced.