Brewers 4, Reds 3: Carlos the Closer

Win: Kyle Lohse (5-6)
Loss: Homer Bailey (5-7)
Save: Francisco Rodriguez (9)

HR: Jonathan Lucroy (11), Chris Heisey (4)

MVPs: Kyle Lohse (.177 WPA)/Jean Segura (.177 WPA)
LVP: Norichika Aoki (-.141 WPA)

Fangraphs Win Expectancy Graph

Boxscore

The Brewers put together a nice team effort to get a win tonight against the.....Ooh, who am I kidding? DID YOU SEE THAT?!?!? CARLOS GOMEZ IS INCREDIBLE!!!

With a good start from Kyle Lohse and solid hitting, the Brewers gave themselves a one-run lead going into the ninth inning. Francisco Rodriguez entered the game and found himself in trouble with the tying run on first base and one of the best hitters on the planet, Joey Votto, up to bat. Votto saw a few pitches and then crushed a ball 400 feet into centerfield. Unfortunately, for Votto, Carlos Gomez plays centerfield for the Brewers and robbed his game-winning home run to record the final out of the game.

Kyle Lohse put together another good start for the Brewers tonight as he pitched 6.2 innings while only giving up three earned runs on nine hits. Lohse was able to limit his damage with two timely double plays and only one walk on the evening.

After giving up an early run in the first inning on three consecutive two-out singles from the Reds, it looked as though Lohse may struggle tonight, but Lohse went on to put together a pretty solid start. In the fourth, Lohse gave up a solo home run to Chris Heisey, but avoided trouble for the most part until the seventh inning.

Offensively, the Brewers gave Lohse just enough support to get the win.

Jean Segura struggled over the weekend against the Mets, but returned to his All-Star form going three for three with a double, HBP and one run scored. Along with his RBI double in the second, Segura singled in the first before stealing second and eventually scoring on Jonathan Lucroy's two-run home run. Lucroy has now hit a home run in three consecutive games.

Rickie Weeks was another bright spot for the Brewers offensively tonight going two for three with a walk and RBI double in the third inning, which gave the Brewers a 4-1 lead.

In the seventh, Lohse gave up a hit to Heisey to start the inning, but quickly recovered with an easy 6-4-3 double play to get himself to the pitcher's spot in the Reds order. Pinch hitter and former Brewer Cesar Izturis singled to keep the inning alive and moved to third on a single from Shin-Soo Choo. Even though Lohse had only thrown 93 pitches, Ron Roenicke opted to bring in John Axford to get the final out of the inning.

With Axford entering the game, Dusty Baker chose to pinch hit for Zack Cosart with Xavier Paul. Paul promptly singled to right field and scored Izturis from third. Axford then had the pleasure of facing Joey Votto in a high leverage situation. After Votto fouled off multiple pitches, Axford struck out Votto swinging on the ninth pitch of the at-bat.

Jim Henderson pitched a shutout inning after putting two runners on base to get the Brewers through the top of the eighth inning. The Brewers threatened in the eighth inning, but ultimately did not score when Ed Sedar put up the stop sign for Logan Schafer roughly ten feet away from home plate in one of the most unusual plays of all-time.

Francisco Rodriguez came in for the save in the ninth inning, but Carlos Gomez was the one that ended up saving the day. After retiring the first two batters of the inning, Rodriguez walked pinch hitter Derrick Robinson to bring up Joey Votto. After working himself into a hitter's count, Votto lifted a ball to center field that looked like a home run coming off the bat and would have cleared the wall if not for the extraordinary timing and athleticism of Carlos Gomez. Gomez tracked the ball back to the wall and timed his leap perfectly to record the final out of the game.

Tomorrow night the Brewers will take on the Reds in the second game of their four game series at Miller Park. Tony Cingrani (3-0) will take the mound for the Reds against the Brewers and Wily Peralta (5-9). Peralta will be making his first start since leaving his July 2nd start against the Nationals early after feeling discomfort in his hamstring in the sixth inning. First pitch will be at 7:10 p.m.