Who Had the Upper Hand
William Contreras and Jake Bauers hit back-to-back homers in the third inning, and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Cincinnati Reds 6-5 on Wednesday night in Cincinnati to complete a three-game sweep. In the tidy little machinery of pro sports hierarchy, Milwaukee kept the pressure on and Cincinnati spent the night trying to claw back from a deficit the Brewers had already built. The Brewers improved to a season-high 20 games over .500 at 49-29, while the Reds fell to 37-42.
The Brewers have now won 18 of the last 21 series against the Reds, a lopsided run that says plenty about who has been doing the dominating and who has been stuck absorbing the damage. Cincinnati was swept at home for the first time since Aug. 16-18, 2024 against the Royals, ending a streak of 44 consecutive series.
What the Bottom Line Looked Like
The Reds loaded the bases with one out in the ninth against Joel Kuhnel, who got Dane Myers to ground into an ending 6-4-3 double play. That was Kuhnel’s third save of the season, a late escape that kept the Brewers’ grip intact after Cincinnati had spent the final innings trying to pry the game loose.
Chad Patrick (5-3) got the win. Brewers left-hander Shane Drohan pitched 4 1/3 scoreless innings with three walks and five strikeouts on a career-high 98 pitches. Contreras’ two-run home run off Rhett Lowder — a line drive that eluded the glove of leaping Dane Myers in center — put the Brewers ahead 2-0. Bauers followed with his team-leading 14th homer. It was the first time this season the Brewers hit back-to-back homers.
Lowder (3-5) allowed three earned runs on eight hits with a walk and six strikeouts on a season-high 100 pitches. The numbers tell the story of a game controlled early by Milwaukee and then briefly threatened by Cincinnati, only for the Reds to run out of room.
The Late Push and the Limits of Recovery
Blake Dunn’s RBI double in the sixth cut the Brewers’ lead to 3-1. With runners on second and third, Garrett Mitchell made a diving catch on Elly De La Cruz’s sinking liner in center to end the inning. Milwaukee extended its lead to 6-1 in the seventh on pinch-hitter Andrew Vaughn’s bases-loaded double off Sam Moll which drove in three runs.
Cincinnati did manage a late surge. Eugenio Suárez had an RBI double in the seventh and Spencer Steer hit a two-run home run, his 13th, in the eighth off Craig Yoho to make it 6-5. But the comeback stopped at the edge of the apparatus, with the Reds left to watch the final inning slip away after loading the bases and failing to finish the job.
Brewers RHP Jacob Misiorowski (8-3, 1.45) was scheduled to start at home Friday against the Chicago Cubs. Reds LHP Andrew Abbott (5-4, 3.83) was set to start Friday at Pittsburgh.