The Brewers offense was firing on all cylinders today, but it wasn’t enough to beat the Reds in a high-scoring spring training game despite outscoring them 17 to 10.
Hunter Greene is an excellent pitcher who will most likely be a key foe for the Brewers in their regular season battles with the Reds. But today he wasn’t fooling anyone. After Matt McLain got the Reds on the board first in the top of the first with a solo home run off today’s starting pitcher Coleman Crow, the Brewer hitters jumped all over Greene. Sal Frelick hit a 90 mph fastball off the center field wall for a triple and then scored on a wild pitch. Jackson Chourio reached another 99 mph fastball in the upper part of the zone and drove it into right field at 107.9 mph for a single. William Contreras singled again on the eighth pitch he saw. Brice Turang hit a 100 mph fastball through the hole in the left side of the infield to score Chourio. Andrew Vaughn golfed a 100-mph fastball to right to score Contreras, and Greene was taken out of the game: He had faced five batters, all five had hits, and three of them had scored.
Julian Garcia, who replaced Greene, retired Gary Sánchez and Joey Ortiz, but Blake Perkins also singled to right field to score Turang and make it 4-1. David Hamilton followed with another single, the seventh Brewer hit of the inning, but Vaughn was thrown out at home for the third out. An eventful first inning was over with the Brewers leading 4-1.
After Crow retired the Reds in order in the second, Greene returned for the Reds. He walked Frelick to start the inning, but got Chourio to ground into a fielder’s choice and then Contreras got a double play, and his second inning went much smoother than his first.
Ángel Zerpa threw a clean third for Milwaukee as the first pitcher off the bench. The Brewers got a pair of hits in the bottom of the third from Vaughn and Ortiz, but did not increase their lead.
Jared Koenig struggled a bit in the fourth. McLain and Elly De La Cruz led off the inning with a single and a double, and after a Sal Stewart strikeout, Spencer Steer walked to load the bases. The next batter, Blake Dunn, cleared the bases with a double into the left field corner, and that was all for Koenig after 22 pitches. Jesús Broca replaced Koenig and retired Christian Encarnacion-Strand for the second out, but Dane Myers singled to right to give the Reds a 5-4 lead.
The Brewers got a pair of baserunners to start the bottom of the fourth when Hamilton picked up his second single (and stole second base) and Frelick walked, but Chourio struck out and Contreras grounded into his second double play of the game.
Rob Zastryzny pitched a 1-2-3 first inning of the fifth. Turang led off the Brewer half of the inning with a walk and Vaughn snuck a bouncer up the middle for his third single of the day. The next two batters struck out, but Perkins came around with a fastball, up and in, and lined it into the right-field corner for a runscoring double.
Sammy Peralta pitched in the sixth for the Brewers, and a few guys beyond, but he thought he was out of the inning when Myers looked at strike three on a 2-2 pitch… only to challenge it, get it turned around and then hit a two-run double to left on the next pitch. Two pitches later, and another double, this one by Will Banfield, extended Cincinnati’s lead to 8-5.
Luis Lara led off the bottom of the sixth with a ground-rule double, advanced to third base on a groundout by Chourio and scored on a groundout by Contreras. The Reds added one on a solo home run by Michael Chavis off Joe Corbett in the seventh, and big Brewer prospect Andrew Fischer smoked a 110-mph home run to right field in the eighth. Jesús Made tried to spark a two-out rally in the ninth when he hit a 110 mph single and then stole second base, but the game ended one batter later with Cincinnati winning 9-7.
The Brewers regulars showed themselves today: they had twelve hits in five innings. Highlights included Vaughn (3-for-3, one RBI), Frelick (1-for-1, one triple, two walks, one run), Turang (1-for-2, two runs, one RBI, one walk), Perkins (2-for-3, one double, two RBI) and Hamilton (2-for-2). The additional extra-base hits were by Lara (a double) and Fischer (the homer).
On the pitching side, Milwaukee got zero innings from Zastryzny, Zerpa, Brian Fitzpatrick and Mark Manfredi. Among other notable pitchers, Koenig struggled (four earned runs, three hits, four walks, one out), as did Peralta (three runs on three hits in one inning).
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