Heartbreaking loss ends Brewers winning streak

Less than two weeks ago, the Milwaukee Brewers were sitting at 25-28 and coming off of back-to-back one-run losses to the NL Central's worst team, the Pittsburgh Pirates. What followed was exactly what the team needed to get back into the division and Wild Card races: an eight-game win streak highlighted by walk-off grand slams and a sweep of the red-hot Philadelphia Phillies. The team was inches away from pulling off another exciting win on Tuesday night to keep the winning streak alive, but they came up just short, and will now have to start a new streak on Wednesday afternoon.

The Brewers jumped out to an early lead thanks to a leadoff double from Brice Turang, that was followed up by an RBI-single from Christian Yelich a few batters later. Sal Frelick added to the lead with his fourth home run of the season in the fourth inning. In less than half as many at-bats, Frelick has doubled his home run total from a season ago. His .410 slugging percentage is nearly 80 points better than last year's mark, and his impressive .295 batting average in 2025 leads all NL right fielders.

Despite not having his best stuff, Brewers starting pitcher Freddy Peralta toughed it out and produced his fourth quality start of the season, covering six innings and allowing three earned runs. Unfortunately, those three runs were enough to hand the Brewers their first loss since May 24, as the offense failed to add on after Frelick's line drive homer in the top of the fourth. That said, the Brewers nearly displayed another act of late-game heroics, only for their effort to be devastatingly shot down by an impressive defensive play from Cincinnati Reds' center fielder, TJ Friedl.

TJ Friedl robs Jake Bauers of would-be game-tying home run

The Brewers offense went dormant in the second half of last night's contest. In fact, the only hit that they collected in the last five innings came on Yelich's second single of the game in the top of the fifth. However, despite the quiet nature of the offense, the Brewers had a chance to tie things up in the top of the ninth.

With Cincinnati's closer, Emilio Pagán, on to close out the game, Caleb Durbin extended his outing by reaching on a throwing error from Elly De La Cruz with two outs. Manager Pat Murphy called upon his most powerful bench bat, Jake Bauers, to try and get ahold of one and send the game to extra innings; and did he ever get ahold of one.

With an exit velocity of 106.2 MPH, Bauers sent a towering fly ball out to center field. Unfortunately, Cincinnati's center fielder, TJ Friedl, had enough time to camp under it, leap up, and snatch it from the other side of the wall, ending the game and the Brewers' eight-game winning streak. Ironically, Bauers' fly ball traveled 43 feet farther than Frelick's home run from earlier in the game.

The Brewers now look to start a new winning streak, with the combination of DL Hall and Quinn Priester on the mound for Wednesday's series finale. The duo was excellent in their last outing, which came last Friday in Philadelphia. They held a strong Phillies offense to just two runs, with Hall covering the first three innings and Priester taking the last six. They will oppose Reds' lefty Andrew Abbott, who has been nothing short of spectacular this season. He's posted a 1.51 ERA in nine starts this season and has yet to take a loss. It should be an excellent test for the Brewers, who haven't lost a series since their matchup with the Minnesota Twins from May 16-18.