Brewers 5, Reds 1: Three Down, One to Go

Box Score

Starting Pitcher: Adrian Houser - 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 92 pitches, 61 strikes (66.3%)
Home Runs: Andruw Monasterio (1), Victor Caratini (3)
Top 3 WPA: Adrian Houser (.272), Andruw Monasterio (.234), Victor Caratini (.073) 
Bottom 3 WPA: Mike Brosseau (-.036), Brice Turang (-.029), Blake Perkins (-.028) 

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Houser Stretches Out
Adrian Houser had a slightly longer start than has been his custom thus far, but was cruising for all seven innings. He gave up just one hit in his first three frames, while getting six batters to ground out. There was some trouble in the fourth inning, where a Matt McLain double and a Jonathan India single spelled trouble, but a flyout by Jake Fraley followed by yet another groundout that turned into a double play helped Houser get out of the jam.

His one earned run came by way of a Fraley home run in the seventh, but Houser finished strong by retiring the final three batters in a row.

It was a great bounceback performance following a brutal outing in Toronto that saw Houser give up six earned runs in just 4 1/3 innings of work. His ERA now stands at 3.45 over 31 1/3 innings pitched this season. 

Monasterio Starts Off With A Bang
After his heroics in the first game of the series, Andruw Monasterio came up big once again, this time in the first inning. After Owen Miller and Jon Singleton both walked, Monasterio hit a monstrous 400-foot home run to center field.

Although it would only have been a home run in seven ballparks, one of them happened to be Great American Ball Park, putting the Brewers up 3-0. This also happened to be Monasterio’s first career home run in the major leagues.

Monasterio was later pulled from the game, following a collision at second base, but he needed just one at-bat to improve Milwaukee’s chance of winning by 23.4%

Caratini Goes Long
The Milwaukee lineup fell silent until the fifth inning, when Victor Caratini sent a ball to the moon, hitting a 429-foot home run to right field, a no-doubter that would’ve been in the seats in every ballpark.

Milwaukee would tack on their fifth and final run of the game following an RBI single by Owen Miller, scoring Joey Wiemer who had hit a single of his own directly after Caratini’s home run.

Speaking of Miller, while he continues to be one of the team’s best hitters (.319/.354/.478, 129 OPS+), he also made a great barehanded defensive play in the third inning. The fact that the Guardians often stashed him at first base last year made it easy to forget, coming into this year, that he has great defensive versatility. It's no longer easy to forget that.

Bullpen Keeps Up The Good Work
Elvis Peguero and Peter Strzelecki were called upon to wrap up the final two innings of the game, and did so without a blemish. Similar to Houser, they depended primarily on soft contact. Between them, they struck out just one batter but allowed zero baserunners.

Strzelecki is overcoming a rough patch wherein he gave up 10 earned runs in his last 14 innings pitched, bringing his current ERA to 3.71. Things seem to be looking up, however, as over his past three relief appearances he has given up zero hits, zero walks, and zero earned runs.

What’s Next? 
The Brewers will try to complete the sweep of this wraparound four-game weekend set Monday, as Julio Teheran takes the mound with an 0.82 ERA against recent call-up Andrew Abbott, a left-handed pitcher who posted a 3.05 ERA in Triple A this season over 38 1/3 innings pitched. Originally, the Crew was scheduled to face Hunter Greene; his start has been pushed back to allow him to recover from reported hip stiffness. 

The Brewers still maintain a 0.5-game lead in the NL Central over the Pirates, but have widened their lead to six games over the fourth-place Reds.

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