Brewers 7, Reds 3: Brewers See Red At The Plate

Box Score

Starting Pitcher: Corbin Burnes - 6.0 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 6 K, 90 pitches, 50 strikes (55.6%)
Home Runs: Joey Wiemer (12), Willy Adames (14)
Top 3 WPA: Willy Adames (.172), Corbin Burnes (.114), Joey Wiemer (.102) 
Bottom 3 WPA: Tyson Miller (-.040), Blake Perkins (-.036), Christian Yelich (-.033)

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Burnes Goes Scoreless (Almost)
Corbin Burnes had a strong beginning to his start, cruising through the first time through the lineup in order. After a walk of TJ Friedl in the fourth inning, a forceout, pickoff, and strikeout kept his dominant pitching performance going. The fifth inning is when things started to come apart at the seams.

After giving up a single and a stolen base to Elly De La Cruz, Joey Votto blasted a home run to right center field to give the Reds their first two runs of the game. Burnes followed up by conceding two more walks before finally getting out of the inning with a flyout and a groundout.

In his final inning of work, he’d give up a single and yet another walk but escape unscathed. On the bright side, his cutter was back to usual nasty form, topping out at 96.3 mph.   

Bullpen Keeps It Up
Hoby Milner had another standout performance, striking out four batters in 1.2 innings without giving up a single hit or walk. Tyson Miller wasn’t as lucky, giving up two walks and a double to Joey Votto to assign himself an earned run before allowing Devin Williams to step in for the save, his 19th of the season.

In his defense, it was Miller’s first major league relief appearance since June 14th where he gave up just one walk in 1.0 inning against the Twins. While his ERA is a somewhat subpar 5.79 over 9.1 innings, it’s important to know that ERA can often be skewed for relievers, especially those with a small sample size of innings pitched. His WHIP of 1.286 is slightly closer to the acceptable range.

Brewers Have A Field Day
The offense was cooking as Milwaukee scored in four separate innings, finally proving that they can indeed hit lefty pitching after all. Three consecutive doubles by William Contreras, Willy Adames, and Owen Miller scored the first two runs for the Brewers in dominant fashion and put Reds starter Andrew Abbott on high alert. 

Not wanting to miss out on the fun, Joey Wiemer hit a 2-RBI home run in the second inning to give the Brewers an imposing 4-0 lead very early in the game. His 397-foot bomb to left center field brought Milwaukee’s win probability to an optimistic 87.2%

After Votto’s 2-RBI home run to bring the score to 4-2, the Brewers responded with a 2-RBI home run of their own, courtesy of Willy Adames. His 378-foot moonshot to left field essentially sealed the deal, bringing the win probability to 93.3%.

Last but not least, Victor Caratini continued his late-inning RBI streak by hitting a single in the seventh inning to score Blake Perkins who had gotten on base after a walk.

What’s Next? 
Colin Rea will take the ball against righty Luke Weaver to try and keep the momentum going. With a dominant home win to start the series, who’s to say the Brewers aren’t able to carry this positive tempo through the rest of the season?

Milwaukee is currently a single game behind the Reds and 6.0 games ahead of the Chicago Cubs.

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