Christian Yelich cycle, 6 hit night key Brewers 13-12 ten inning win over Reds

WP: Jeremy Jeffress (7-1); LP: Raisel Iglesias (2-3); Save: none; Homeruns: Mil - Christian Yelich (26), Jonathan Schoop (20), Mike Moustakas (25), Jesus Aguilar (30); Cin - Tucker Barnhart (9), Eugenio Suarez (30), Brandon Dixon (3)

This Box Score is Very Busy

If you didn’t watch tonight’s game, don’t expect to get a complete recap of everything that happened in the Milwaukee Brewers (74-60) ten inning, 13-12 win over the Cincinnati Reds (57-76). But what the heck, I’ll give it a shot.

First off, Christian Yelich is ON FIRE. He went six for six with three singles, a double, a triple, and yet another homer - that’s homers in seven of his last ten games. And eight homers in those ten games.

The Brewers gave up leads of 2-0, 5-3, and 11-10 before two runs in the tenth proved just enough. The Reds gave up leads of 3-2, 7-5, and 10-6 and came up just short in the bottom of the tenth.

There was a big dust-up on a very odd call by the umpires when relief pitcher Michael Lorenzen was attempting to bunt in the sixth and fouled off a pitch that was boring in on him. It was called a foul ball because Lorenzen was not attempting to bunt, which feels like the correct call - except I can’t recall ever seeing it called that way before. To add insult to injury Lorenzen then hit his third homerun of the season against Milwaukee, a three run shot that put Cincy up 10-6.

There’s so much scoring here that I’ll mainly concentrate on the Brewers:

Lorenzo Cain and Yelich led off the game with singles, and Travis Shaw doubled in Cain and left runners at second and third. A Mike Moustakas groundout put Milwaukee up 2-0, but Billy Hamilton’s lead off homer in the bottom of the inning made it 2-1. Single runs in the second and fourth made it 3-2 Reds.

The Brewers answered in the fifth and knocked out Reds’ starter Matt Harvey with five straight hits to begin the inning (after Harvey had struck out three straight in the top of the fourth). It was the top of the order again...a single from Cain, homer from Yelich, and singles from Shaw, Braun, and Moustakas.

Given a 5-3 lead Freddy Peralta walked the first hitter in the bottom of the fifth, then gave up a single. After a flyball, Craig Counsell went with Josh Hader - and he was hit hard. In ²⁄₃ of an inning Josh gave up four runs on three hits and a walk, including a homer by Eugenio Suarez. 7-3 Reds.

Milwaukee got an unearned run in the sixth. Orlando Arcia had entered with Hader on a double switch and reached on a throwing error by Lorenzen. An out later Yelich collected his double, and Shaw brought Arcia home with a sac fly. The bottom of the sixth was the Lorenzen inning, with the homer coming off of Taylor Williams after he replaced Hader, and it was 10-6 Reds.

The Crew kept up the pressure in the seventh. A single by Moose was followed by Jonathan Schoop’s 20th homer of the season, and ended the night for the Reds’ righty.

Hernan Perez pinch hit for Williams and lined to left, and Manny Pina was hit in the face with a pitch...see game notes for an update. With two down Cain doubled in pinch runner Erik Kratz, and then Yeli garnered his triple to score Cain:

And just like that, it was 10-10.

The game stayed the same score through the bottom of the seventh...Corbin Burnes was the only Brewer pitcher to not give up any runs, but it was a near thing: Yelich ended the inning by throwing out Suarez at the plate:

Milwaukee took an 11-10 lead in the top of the eighth when Moustakas homered leading off the inning:

But the Reds scored a run off of Joakim Soria in the bottom of the eighth when Hamilton came across on a wild pitch. Hamilton was originally ruled to have not touched home plate, and called out, but that was overturned on appeal. If he hadn’t actually touched the plate I’m pretty sure that Kratz illegally blocked the plate. All knotted up at 11-11.

Raisel Iglesias had the ninth for the Reds and looked very good, but even he couldn’t keep Yeli down...and infield single gave the Brewers’ outfielder his sixth hit of the night. Was this the best hitting/fielding night ever by a Brewer? Jeremy Jeffress walked two in the bottom of the ninth, but escaped the jam to send the game to extra innings. Well, an extra inning.

Have I mentioned yet that Jesus Aguilar didn’t play tonight, but came in on a double switch with Jeffress? Or that he clubbed a homer off of Iglesias in the top of the tenth to put Milwaukee up 12-11? Yup, he did that:

That was a bomb. The Brewers tacked on an insurance run on a two out double by Perez and a single by Kratz. That was needed when JJ gave up a lead off homer in the bottom of the frame, but he retired the next three for the win.

If you didn’t watch this one, or gave up on it, try and find a full replay. A condensed one won’t do it justice. Just like this recap couldn’t. But it was fun to write anyways!

The Cubs finished off last night’s game with a win, but lost to the Mets 10-3 in today’s game. The Cards lost to the Pirates 2-0. The Cubs lead the Cards by 4.5 and the Brewers by 5; Milwaukee still holds the second Wild Card spot.

The two teams will finish the three game set with an afternoon game - morning start for those of us in Wisconsin; 11:35 a.m. Brewer lefty Wade Miley (2-2, 2.32) is coming off of his worst start of the season, and he will face Cody Reed (0-1, 3.68).

Game Notes:

• I don’t know how that mitt that Hamilton wears (and others wear, too) can be legal. It extends his reach by a couple of inches. If you want to cover your hand, fine...but it can’t extend past your reach by more than a quarter inch, IMHO.
• Of course, if you are going to have extra innings, you might as well start out with a half hour rain delay. Yet another four and a half hour game.
• And there is your trade deadline game: Mike Moustakas had four hits and three RBI with a dinger, and Jonathan Schoop two hits with a homer and two RBI.
• Manny Pina took a David Hernandez slider off of his face, and was bleeding - Craig Counsell said after the game that it was a laceration on his lip and he had five stitches. He’s day to day, as are we all. He had to be removed; and I suspect that Erik Kratz had his first pinch running appearance in the majors.
• So: The Brewers had 22 hits, there most this season, and four homers. Besides Yelich, Cain had three hits, Shaw had two with a sac fly and a walk, and Mike Moustakas had four hits with a homer and three RBI. If you had fewer than three hits, too bad so sad - you don’t make the game notes.
• The Reds only had 14 hits, but seven of them came from Curt Casali (three) and (of course) Billy Hamilton, who had four, including that lead off homer.
• Scooter Gennett’s two for six night leaves him at .314 on the season; Yelich’s big night has him at .319.