The Cincinnati Reds got home runs from Colin Moran, Brandon Drury, and Kyle Farmer as they took care of business on Monday night and beat the Milwaukee Brewers 10-5. The victory gave the Reds their first winning streak of the year as they’ve now picked up two wins in a row.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Milwaukee Brewers (19-11) |
5 | 7 | 0 |
| Cincinnati Reds (6-23) | 10 | 14 | 1 |
| W: Cessa (1-0) L: Woodruff (3-2) |
|||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
The Offense
After going 1-2-3 in the 1st inning, Cincinnati got some offense going in the 2nd when Colin Moran took a 2-2 fastball and crushed it into the seats in left field for his 3rd home run of the year, giving the Reds a 1-0 lead.
The offense got going again in the bottom of the 5th inning when Albert Almora Jr. led off with a double and Matt Reynolds worked a walk to put two men on for TJ Friedl. He took a 95 MPH fastball from Brandon Woodruff and lined a double into the left-center gap to bring Almora Jr. across the plate to cut into the Brewers lead, making it a 3-2 game. Brandon Drury them stamped an exclamation point on the inning with a 414-foot 3-run homer to center that put Cincinnati ahead 5-3. But things weren’t over as Tommy Pham singled, stole second, moved to third on a ground out, and then scored on a passed ball to double up Milwaukee.
After the Brewers got two of those runs back in the top of the 6th, Cincinnati’s offense went back to work in the bottom half. Albert Almora Jr. led off with an infield single and moved to second on a single by Matt Reynolds. A fielders choice put runners on the corners for Tommy Pham and he took advantage of the situation and singled in a run to make it 7-5.
Singles from Tyler Stephenson and Tyler Naquin led off the bottom of the 7th. They were followed by Kyle Farmer, who ended his 0-34 slump with a big time 3-run homer to right-center to extend Cincinnati’s lead to 10-5. That was more than enough to pick up the win.
The Pitching
Luis Castillo took the mound for the first time this year in the big leagues after missing the first month of the season. He gave up just a lone single in the first three innings and faced the minimum. But in the 4th inning he ran into trouble as he walked Kolten Wong and Christian Yelich. Walks will haunt, and they certainly did here as Rowdy Tellez drove them both in on a double that gave Milwaukee a 2-1 lead. The next inning saw Omar Narvaez lead off with a home run to extend the Brewers lead to 3-1. Castillo did his job to get out of the inning, getting a grounder to shortstop for what should have been an easy force out at second, but Kyle Farmer bobbled the ball and couldn’t get the throw in time to second base. That play ended the night for Castillo, who allowed three hits and walked three batters with five strikeouts in his outing. Luis Cessa came on to complete the inning, getting Yelich to line out, completing Castillo’s line with three earned runs.
With Cincinnati grabbing a 6-3 lead thanks to a 5-run 5th inning, the Reds sent Luis Cessa back out for the 6th inning and things didn’t go well. He allowed three singles and a run before exiting the game with the score at 6-4 but with two men still on the bases. Alexis Diaz entered and gave up a single to Jace Peterson to make it 6-5, but he got Kolten Wong to line out to end the inning and preserve the lead. Diaz returned for the 7th and went 1-2-3, but not before Rowdy Tellez gave everyone a scare with a fly ball caught against the wall in center by Albert Almora Jr.
Jeff Hoffman took over for the 8th inning with a 10-5 lead and he kept it there with a perfect inning as he lowered his ERA to 1.62 on the year. Joel Kuhnel entered the game in the 9th and put Milwaukee down in order to seal the win.
Key Moment of the Game
7th inning, two on and no outs with Kyle Farmer at the plate and he snapped out of his slump and crushed a 3-run homer to extend the Reds lead to 10-5 and put the game out of reach.
Notes Worth Noting
Kyle Famer’s 0-34 streak was the second longest in Cincinnati Reds history. Only Virgil Stallcup’s streak of 0-35 in 1948 was longer.
The win gave Cincinnati their first back-to-back wins of the season.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Milwaukee Brewers vs Cincinnati Reds
Tuesday May 10th, 6:40pm ET
Freddie Peralta (1-1, 5.09 ERA) vs Hunter Greene (1-4, 8.71 ERA)
The Reds finally have more wins than FCC 🙂
Don’t look now… but reds are catching up to the Detroit Tigers…only need 3 more wins and we are out of the MLB cellar
That was a pretty quick recap, Mr. Gray! Nicely done.
Shed a couple monkeys tonight. Onward to tomorrow and seeing what Hunter Greene can accomplish.
Virgil Stallcup.
That’s some serious research.
Strong work Doug!!!!
GABP showed up.
I’ll be fair – I didn’t do that research. Got it from the twitter. But I did do the research (though I only tweeted it rather than had it in this story) that Stallcup didn’t end his streak with a homer like Farmer did. Stallcup singled to end his streak.
You do an amazing job!
Wonder if Virgil Stallcup was a catcher?
I’m an optimist. I believe that a healthy Reds team can reach 3rd place this season.
A lot of guys getting a 2nd chance to prove they can play. I still stand by my comments a few days ago. This team is scrappy
The Reds have won 3 of the last 4. They win 3 of every 4 the rest of the way out, that will put them at a record of 106-56. Lots of baseball ahead!
(Sarcasm, sure. But, the team hasn’t looked lifeless, and shouldn’t be as bad the rest of the way as they were in April. At least until a possible continued fire sale happens later this summer)
This just in: Reds have signed Virgil Stallcup to a minor league contract.
I thought he was a Univ Utah QB in the early 60’s
Just watched the Mariner’s v. Phillies snd got to see Nick C (doubled), Geno (walk) and Jesse, ground out in the same inning.
If you want to catch the next big thing, start watching Julio Rodriguez. Yikes. He’s like Buxton meets Soto
Virgil Stallcup. One more reason baseball is and always will be the great American pastime. Nice win for the Reds. Now for Hunter Greene to start climbing the MLB learning curve, and deliver a series win. Go Reds!
On pace for 42-120. 🙂 Movin up.
if they go 75-58 they will finish 81-81, if my math is right. hah!
81-81. A worthy goal for this season. Another big win for the Reds. I give Krall credit for the acquisitions of Drury, Moran and Pham (he’s able to take a walk and has some speed). The offense has come alive.
Virgil Stallcup! You can’t stop him, only hope to contain him.
Reds are actually fun to watch again. Drury and Moran! Who’d of thunk. Barry Larkin has the players back. You have to listen carefully but you can tell he favors bunting, stealing bases, defense and praises players when they do well. Ask Farmer.
Curious if rumors again of mahle and Castillo being traded in July would actually happen. I read it on blog post that rumor reds open for trade offers for the both and be wise to do to build for the next contender team for the future even trade votto n Moose
Just please don’t package Moose with one of those pitchers ala the Winker/Suarez trade. We can’t attach negative value to our offer and think that is a net win.
As with Chapman, it seems we absolutely traded low on Suarez.
Interesting tidbit. Every batter had a hit and scored a run. Nice to see everything spread out.
Nice win for the good guys, nice to see the law of averages taking effect finally. The Brewers hit some balls hard with men on base that would’ve changed the game completely but they were right at Reds defenders–3rd day in a row seemingly.
Drury will make Solano expendable if he keeps mashing. Or better yet, package Pham, Drury, and Solano to a desperate contender for a single high end prospect. These quality veteran bench pieces hold a lot of value at the deadline as they shore up a lot of holes and allow managers to mix and match in playoff series.