Today In Brewer History: Meet the Reds

On this day in 1997 the Reds beat the Brewers 4-3 at Cinergy Field. Mark Loretta homered and Jeff Cirillo doubled twie but it wasn't enough as the Reds scored a single run in the sixth to tie, another in the seventh to take the lead and held on for the win in the first-ever meeting between these two franchises.

This was an interleague game, but these two teams would go on to meet many more times after the Brewers moved into the NL Central in 1998. All told they've now met 244 times, with the Reds leading the all time series comfortably at 131-113. Cincinnati has also taken five of six meetings between these two teams this season.

Here are some fun facts about the rivalry:

• Geoff Jenkins leads all Brewers with 122 career hits against the Reds, but Rickie Weeks is second with 110.
• Jenkins' 28 career homers against Cincinnati represent about 13% of his career total.
• Brandon Phillips leads all Reds with 122 hits against the Brewers, while Adam Dunn has 31 home runs.
• Ben Sheets had eight career wins against the Reds and 106 strikeouts to lead all Brewers.
• Bronson Arroyo has 12 wins against the Brewers as a Red and has racked up 127 strikeouts against Milwaukee.

The Brewers and Reds next meet in Milwaukee on July 8.

With help from Brewerfan.net and the B-Ref Play Index, we'd like to wish a happy birthday today to:

• Helena Brewer Danny Keller, who turns 21.
• Milwaukee native Mark Grudzielanek, who turns 43. He played 15 MLB seasons between 1995-2010 as a member of the Dodgers and five other teams.
• 2001 Brewer Tony Fernandez, who turns 51.
• Cambria, Wisconsin native Davy Jones, who would have turned 133. Jones played in the majors from 1901-18 as a member of the 1901 Milwaukee Brewers, Detroit Tigers and three other teams.

Today is also the 13th anniversary of the Brewers letting Eric Young reach base seven times in a loss to the Cubs in 2000 (which we covered in this space last year), and the 38th anniversary of a Brewer win over the Yankees in 1975 behind Bobby Darwin's pinch hit walkoff home run (which we covered in this space two years ago).