The highlights
Cincinnati got off to a good start when Matt McLain hit a sinker 380 feet into the crowd in the top of the first inning to give the Reds a 1-0 lead.
In the bottom half of the inning, things went as bad as they could for Hunter Greene. In his first start of the spring, Greene’s inning went like this: Triple on a misplayed ball up center, a wild pitch that brought in a run, and then four consecutive singles. That resulted in three runs on five hits, 22 pitches and zero outs. A new run would be added to his record when reliever Julian Garcia entered the game and gave up two more hits.
However, since it’s spring training and nothing really matters, Hunter Greene was allowed to return to the mound to start the second inning for the Reds. He would walk the first batter of the inning, but then got a force out on a grounder and then a double play ball to end the inning and his day.
Two innings later, we saw Cincinnati’s offense mount a big rally against two Brewers relievers. Matt McLain led off the inning with a single and moved to third base on a double by Elly De La Cruz. Spencer Steer issued a one-out walk to load the bases for Blake Dunn, then promptly cleared them with a double to tie the game. Dunn would come around later in the inning to score on an RBI single by Dane Myers that put the Reds up 5-4.
They didn’t stay in the lead for long. Milwaukee reached Lyon Richardson in the bottom of the fifth. They would get the first two batters on base before a 2-out double by Blake Perkins produced the tying run. Richardson would strand two runners to keep the game tied at the end of five.
Cincinnati regained the lead in the top of the sixth inning thanks to the new rules introduced this year. Sal Stewart singled to lead off the inning and Blake Dunn was hit by a pitch and then pinch run for. That led to Dane Myers coming to the plate with two men on and two out. He was going to be called out on a strike, but he challenged the call and he was right, giving him another chance and he took advantage when he drove in two runs with a double. He would then score when Will Banfield followed with an RBI double of his own, making it 8-5.
A ground-rule double in the bottom of the sixth was followed by back-to-back groundouts for the Brewers, but both moved Luis Lara a base in the process and he would score to get one of those runs back for Milwaukee.
Michael Chavis got that run back for Cincinnati in the top of the seventh inning. He would hit a solo home run with two outs to extend the Reds’ lead to 9-6. The Brewers got a run back in the bottom of the eighth on a long home run by Andrew Fischer, but that was all they could salvage as Cincinnati kept the lead. Davis Daniel made sure this was their last run as well, as he worked a scoreless 9th inning to seal the victory.
You can view the box score for this game here.
News and notes
Elly De La Cruz had his first single of the spring as a right-handed hitter when he doubled in the 4th inning. He is now 1-3 against lefties this spring. He’s also 5-9 against righties. All of his hits are extra-base hits and he is hitting .500/.500/1.250 in his four games played.
Matt McLain is 6-12 with a walk and a strikeout in his first 13 at-bats of the spring.
Blake Dunn had a nice few days. He homered on Friday. In this game, he doubled and drove in three runs, while also throwing out a runner at home.
The Reds used nine pitchers in the game. Hunter Greene was the only one who didn’t record a strikeout. In total, the pitching staff had 12 strikeouts and three walks, but also gave up 17 basehits. None of the nine had a perfect inning in the game.
The Reds are back on the road on Sunday when they head to Hohokam Stadium to take on the Athletics. He is expected to pitch in this game for Cincinnati: Andrew Abbott, Emilio Pagan, Tony Santillan, Brock Burke, Graham Ashcraft, Connor Phillips, Tejay Antone, Zach Maxwell and Luis Mey.
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