Brewers take it on the chin, lose 14-6 to the Reds

Coming off another disappointing loss to Cincinnati, the Milwaukee Brewers hoped to change their fortunes against the bottom feeders of the NL Central. Just the opposite occurred. The Reds put a shellacking on the Brew Crew this evening getting to Zach Davies early.

Things started poorly for Davies and the Crew. After striking out Nick Senzel on 11 pitches, Zach Davies gave up a double to Joey Votto. Engenio Suarez followed with his third home home run in his past three plate appearances. It was a 2-run opposite field homer for his 27th of the year. Davies next walked Yasiel Puig. Jesse Winker followed with his own opposite field homer to make it 4-0, Reds.

Milwaukee and Tyler Saladino in particular made some impressive defensive plays early as illustrated below.

Unfortunately their defense, particularly Saladino, failed them in the top of the fifth. Nick Senzel led off the inning with a single that bounced off the glove of Mike Moustakas, past Saladino and into left field. Next up was Joey Votto who served up a picture perfect double play ground ball to the shifted Mike Moustakas in the hole at second base. Moose made a decent throw to Saladino who was covering. Saladino dropped the ball and everyone was safe, and it felt as if the flood gates were ready to open, and did they. Brewer killer, Eugenio Suarez delivered again with a single to left scoring Senzel from second and sending Zach Davies to the showers.

Alex Claudio replaced Davies, and his first batter to face was Yasiel Puig. He got Puig to bounce a ball high in the air that Saladino was able to glove, but he hesitated on the throw and the hustling Puig beat it out to load the bases.

With an opportunity to break things open, Reds’ manager, David Bell lifted Jesse Winker for right handed hitting Phillip Ervin to face Claudio. The move worked out. Ervin tripled down the right field line, clearing the bases. Ervin would later score on a sacrifice fly by Scooter Gennett, and the Reds were in total control, 9-0.

The Brewers showed some fight in the bottom of the fifth. Tyler Saladino got an infield hit and would score on a Lorenzo Cain double. Christian Yelich scored Cain on a single to left, and the score was 9-2.

Burch Smith took over the top of the sixth, starting things off with a walk to Senzel. Joey Votto followed with a 2-run shot that bounced off the facade in the second deck in right.

In the bottom of the sixth, Ryan Braun got on via catcher’s interference. Eric Thames got on by the walk, and Manny Pina delivered with a 3-run bomb to left making 11-5.

The Reds kept the pressure on the Brewers and Burch Smith in the seventh. Scooter Gennett served up a single to get the inning started. Smith next gave up a single to Jose Iglesias. Lavarnway singled in Gennett to add on another run. Jose Peraza would later single to left bringing in Iglesias and Lavarnway. The score was 14-5.

The Brew Crew showed some life in the bottom of the eighth. Keston Hiura began the inning with a single, and Saladino followed with a walk. Manny Pina delivered an RBI single to right, scoring Hiura. Unfortunately that would be as close as they would get, 14-6.

Milwaukee and Cincinnati go at it again tomorrow. First pitch is at 1:10 CT. Jhoulys Chacin will face Lucas Sims. The game can be heard on WTMJ and seen on Fox Sports Wisconsin.