Huh.
The Good: Brandon Williamson pitched into the 7th inning, his longest outing as a professional at any level since he was back in A-ball. His breaking pitches were working, he kept the Milwaukee Brewers mostly off-keel, and looked like he was a guy who could go out there every fifth day and do this for a living.
The Bad: Up against former National League Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes, we knew it would be a difficult evening for the offense. That turned out to be an understatement, as the Cincinnati Reds logged just a pair of hits before the Bottom of the 11th and a trio overall. Burnes was eventually tossed because he hated the strike zone so much on the night – he walked 4, obviously disagreed with several of those, and that’s how the Reds got their runs going – but was otherwise damn near impossible to hit. So, too, was the vaunted Milwaukee bullpen.
The Ugly: Despite carrying a trio of catchers so that Tyler Stephenson could play some 1B from time to time, Kevin Newman started at 1B for the first time at any point in his lengthy pro career (at any level). This isn’t even about Newman, who’s been completely cromulent in the role he was tasked with so far – it’s about being 3.0 games back of this Milwaukee club with beacoup infielders knocking the piss out of the ball at AAA and doing nothing to help the big league club have a better chance to win a ballgame. It’s the latest in a long line of clear indications that winning games this year simply isn’t something they give a shit about, and that’s a file you can tuck away right now with over 100 games remaining in this season.
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The Reds lost, 5-4. They may well have lost this game in any scenario, but it didn’t have to be this way.
They’ll try this baseball thing again tomorrow against Milwaukee at 4:10 PM ET, with Graham Ashcraft toeing the rubber for the Reds.