Milwaukee Brewers: How did ‘small ball’ help beat the Reds?

After what was a historic Opening Weekend, the Milwaukee Brewers traveled to Cincinnati to continue their winning ways against the Reds. Could there be more history made?

Fans were hoping to see Milwaukee Brewers superstar Christian Yelich hit yet another home run to make it five home runs in five games and maybe hope to see the bats awaken for Orlando Arcia and Yasmani Grandal. However, the offense took a different strategy against Cincinnati.

Early Inning Scoring

The Milwaukee Brewers wasted little time getting runs on the board against the Cincinnati Reds. In fact, they scored a majority of their runs in the first inning. The scoring started when Lorenzo Cain drew a four-pitch walk to lead off the game, then it came time to see if Yelich could break another record. Yelich unfortunately struck out in his first at-bat so no home run…yet.

Ryan Braun would single to move Cain to third. Then Travis Shaw would also get walked. Reds’ pitcher Tanner Roark had a tough time throwing strikes on Monday night and it showed. But when he would throw strikes, the Milwaukee Brewers would capitalize on them for key hits. Such as the run scoring single by Jesus Aguilar and the two-run double for Mike Moustakas.

Cardiac Crew

The Milwaukee Brewers scored most of their runs in the first inning. That seemed to be it when it came to scoring, but as it turns out, Grandal’s bat was awoken from a deep slumber. The newly acquired catcher had a great hitting day at the plate going three-for-four. Unfortunately, Arcia could not say the same as he did not pick up a single hit in three at bats.

The Reds scored two in the fifth thanks to Yasiel Puig‘s two run double and then another run in the sixth inning off of a run scoring ground out from Derek Dietrich.  The Reds at this point tied the game and the Brewers had to mount a comeback if they wanted to keep their win steak alive.

Zach Davies got the start for the Brewers and did well. He threw five innings, and allowed two runs on four hits with six strikeouts. However, he didn’t earn the W.

The game came down to the ninth inning when Braun drove in Yelich after the 2018 MVP hit a double. Then it was time for some Haderade as Josh Hader came in picked up another save after some dramatics.  But who said wins always have to be pretty?