Terry Francona's crucial mistake leads to Brewers' sweep over division rival Reds

Terry Francona is one of the best managers in MLB. Not only does "Tito" have three American League pennants and two World Series championships on his managerial resume, but he's also tied for the most Manager of the Year Awards in MLB history with three -- an honor he shares with Dusty Baker, Jim Leyland, Joe Maddon, Bob Melvin, and Lou Piniella.

However, even the best managers in baseball make mistakes, and Francona made one last night that may have cost his team a victory over their division rivals and a chance to avoid a frustrating sweep at their home ballpark.

After taking the first two games of their series in Cincinnati behind stellar pitching performances from starters Brandon Woodruff and Brandon Sproat, as well as their "A bullpen," the Milwaukee Brewers entered Wednesday night's series finale with a short-handed pitching staff. With Shane Drohan starting on the bump for the Crew and relievers Trevor Megill, Abner Uribe (who was serving his one-game suspension), and Aaron Ashby all unavailable, Milwaukee needed to build an early lead to give their "B bullpen" a chance to bring home a series sweep.

However, the Brewers' offense entered Wednesday night's game without a base hit with a runner in scoring position during the first the series. Through the first two games in Cincinnati, the Brewers' offense went a combined 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position and scraped together just four total runs. In other words, the offense had gone cold.

Last night, despite scratching across three runs in the first six innings, the Brewers' offense entered the seventh frame still without a base hit with a runner in scoring position. Milwaukee held a 3-1 lead over the Reds, but, as previously mentioned, they needed to tack on more runs to give their low-leverage relief options more breathing room in the later innings.

The Brewers got their insurance runs in the seventh inning, but not without help from the Reds' manager, Francona, who missed a crucial opportunity to counter Pat Murphy's pinch hitter with a better relief option.

Francona not countering Andrew Vaughn with a right-handed reliever may have cost the Reds a victory on Wednesday night

With lefty Brice Turang, who has been much worse against southpaws than righties this year, due up second for the Brewers in the top of the seventh inning, Francona elected to stick with left-hander Sam Moll, who entered the game with two outs in the sixth inning. Moll got Jackson Chourio to ground out before, ironically, allowing a triple to Turang. Francona elected to intentionally walk William Contreras to set up the left-on-left matchup with Jake Bauers, but Moll ended up walking Bauers as well, and loading the bases.

Garrett Mitchell was due up next for the Brewers, but Pat Murphy elected to pinch hit Andrew Vaughn in Mitchell's stead. Everyone was expecting Francona to counter with a right-hander from his bullpen, especially given the fact that Vaughn entered the night with a 1.328 OPS against the southpaws and a .695 OPS against righties in 2026. However, Francona stuck with Moll, and on the fourth pitch of the at-bat, Vaughn bounced a bases-clearing double down the left field line, giving the Brewers three crucial insurance runs.

What makes the move, or rather lack of a move, from Francona even more surprising is the fact that right-hander Tejay Antone entered the game to face Cooper Pratt just two batters later. Francona should have anticipated Vaughn pinch hitting for one of the Brewers' three left-handed batters in a row, and had Antone up and ready earlier in the inning.

Those three insurance runs from Vaughn in the seventh inning were certainly necessary as the Brewers ended up winning by a score of 6-5. Grant Anderson allowed a run in the bottom of the seventh before Craig Yoho allowed three runs, two of which came from Spencer Steer's 13th homer of the season, in the bottom of the eighth. Cincinnati threatened to send the game into extra innings or end it all together in the bottom of the ninth, but Joel Kuhnel induced a game-ending double play with the bases loaded and one out.

Who knows what would have happened in Vaughn's at-bat had Francona made the switch from Moll to Antone two batters earlier? Forcing Vaughn to face a righty rather than a southpaw certainly would have decreased the odds of the Brewers' first-baseman extending his team's lead in the top of the seventh inning last night. In the age of information, Francona not making the call to his bullpen in that moment was not only perplexing but costly as well. Undoubtedly, it was a shocking misstep from one of the best in the business.

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