Let’s recap tonight’s titanic struggle….
FINAL
Milwaukee 3
Cincinnati 7
W: T. Wood (4-3)
L: C. Narveson (2-4)
BOX SCORE
POSITIVES
–Once again, it was The Jay Bruce Show in Cincinnati. Bruce was 3-4 with a triple, his 16th homer, 2 runs scored, and 3 RBI. He’s now hitting .294/.358/.578, and he leads the National League in HR and RBI. Is there anything Jay Bruce cannot do?
–Paul Janish (!) was 2-4 with a run scored and an RBI, and he made at least two brilliant defensive plays. One of those was a gorgeous double play he turned with the help of Brandon Phillips. A thing of beauty.
(BP made a pretty good play of his own, too.)
Jay Bruce is on fire. (Charles Rex Arbogast/AP)
–Travis Wood wasn’t particularly sharp, but he was good enough: six innings, three runs on seven hits. Wood didn’t walk a batter; his big problem was the home run ball in the fifth inning (which was really his only tough inning).
–Once again the bullpen was brilliant: Arredondo, Masset, and CoCo shut down the Brew Crew over the last three innings.
NEGATIVES
–None.
NOT-SO-RANDOM THOUGHTS
–Wow, I needed a game like this. Thanks to Bruce, the Reds jumped out to a lead and never looked back.
–The Milwaukee Brewers: Good For What Ails Ya (at least, from the Reds perspective). The Reds are 7-1 against Milwaukee (17-4 over the last two years). The Reds own the Brewers, period.
–Even better, Cincinnati gained a game on both teams ahead of them in the standings, as St. Louis lost, as well.
–Bruce is hitting .405 with six homers and 17 RBIs in his last nine games, and .346 with 12 homers and 32 RBIs in May.
–Looks like Chad Reineke will be starting tomorrow, making his Cincinnati debut. I never thought we’d see Reineke in Cincinnati this season, but it is what it is.
–Let’s sleep well for one night, shall we?