Cincinnati Reds bullpen shelled again in 9-3 loss to Milwaukee Brewers

A brutal end to an otherwise promising series in Milwaukee.

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

Jesse Winker remained blisteringly hot, and even tagged the Milwaukee Brewers for his first dinger of the season. He had a trio of hits, drove in both Reds runs, and has upped his season OBP to .408.

That was wonderful.

Unfortunately, the Cincinnati Reds bullpen is a pile of hot garbage right now.

Key Plays

• Walks to each of Castellanos and Suarez from Milwaukee starter Brandon Woodruff put a big ol’ pot of stew on the Reds stove in the Top of the 1st, and Winker stepped up to stir it with an RBI single into LF to plate Nick the Stick. Reds led early, 1-0.
• The Beers leveled things in the Bottom of the 3rd, and did so with some 2-out work. Of course, it naturally featured Christian Yelich, who bonked a triple into the RF corner after Keston Hiura had singled in front of him. The game was afoot, 1-1.
• It became unfeeted almost immediately, however, as Winker pounded a Woodruff meatball some 431 feet over the CF wall in the Top of the 4th, a solo blast that gave the Reds a 2-1 lead.
• Despite grinding for most of the day, David Bell rolled Sonny Gray out for the Bottom of the 6th as he was nearing 100 pitches. That burned, however, as Justin Smoak poked a leadoff double, moved to 3B on a Mark Mathias single, and scored on a single up the middle by Bill Hall All Star Manny Pina. Michael Lorenzen was summoned, presumably because there was nobody else, and promptly walked a guy and served up an RBI single, only to walk a dude with the bags juiced and force in another run. On came Cody Reed, who fired up meatballs, too, and by the end of the inning the Reds were down 7-2.
• Newly promoted Joel Kuhnel was tasked with the Bottom of the 7th, and he had a fastball turned around by Hiura for a solo blast off the batter’s eye in CF. Yelich then followed with a ball hit twice that far over the CF wall, and the Reds were down 9-2.
• Winker’s double and a subsequent single by Freddy Galvis plated a run in an otherwise fruitless Top of the 9th, and that was that. Reds lost, 9-3.

Tony Graphanino

Other Notes

• Joey Votto’s now hitting .196 on the season. Eugenio Suarez is at .132. Nick Senzel is out, Mike Moustakas is out (more below), and that’s a big pile of not good. Hopefully, some positive regression is ready given the next few clubs on the schedule.
• The Reds will finally have a scheduled off-day on Monday, and on Tuesday they’ll welcome the Kansas City Royals to GABP to begin a quick two-game set. Luis Castillo is set to start the first game of the series, while the Royals have yet to set their rotation. First pitch Tuesday is scheduled for 6:40 PM ET.
• Speaking of pending Reds/Royals contests, it appears former Royal Mike Moustakas will not be able to face his former team, as the thigh issue that kept him from facing his former mates in Milwaukee this weekend officially landed him on the 10-day IL today. Hopefully, he’ll be ready for the next tussle with KC next week, as the placement was retroactive to Thursday.
• Tunes.