Starter Zack Littell pitched well but Brewers rally with help from Reds defense
Cincinnati Reds starter Zack Littell pitched six-plus strong innings, but shaky fielding buried the Reds in an extra-inning loss to the Brewers.
Reds can’t hold a one-run lead in ninth, fall to the Brewers in the 10th inning.Defense fails Reds again as they have three errors for second straight night.Reds have lost 13 consecutive series to the Milwaukee Brewers
The standings say the difference between the Cincinnati Reds and the best team in the majors is 15 games.
The reality bites a little deeper.
When the Milwaukee Brewers scored the tying run against the Reds on a throwing error by Elly De La Cruz in the ninth inning of another loss to the Brew Crew Saturday night, it highlighted the Cincinnati Achilles’ heel that figures to keep the Reds from the promised land as long as they fail to fix it.
Then an error in left field by Jake Fraley, who fell down on the play and left the game hurt, allowed another run to score in the 10th in a game eventually won 6-5 in 11 innings by the the Brewers on Andruw Monasterio’s second home run of the year, a three-run, pinch-hit shot.
Fraley’s play was more freak than miscue. He hyper-extended his knee and was sent for an exam after he came out of the game.
But that’s how it’s been going these days for the Brewers, who haven’t lost in August, breaking a tie with the 1987 club for longest winning streak in Brewers history, at 14.
It’s also how it’s been going these recent years for a good-but-not-great Reds team that has yet to shake its shaky fielding.
And instead of keeping pace with the New York Mets for the final National League playoff position, the Reds dropped to 1 1/2 games back of the final wild card.
“We haven’t played clean, and that was one of the points we talked about before this series, because of how fast they are and how aggressive they are,” Reds manager Terry Francona said. “We haven’t done that, and it has hurt us both nights.”
Errors led to a pair of unearned Brewers runs the night before in a game Milwaukee won by that margin after plowing under an early 8-1 Reds lead.
The Brewers clinched a 13th straight series win against the Reds, dating to 2022.
Even in a season the Reds have upgraded the fielding – most recently with the trade-deadline acquisition of Gold Glove third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes – they lag well behind many of the other contenders in that area.
That’s especially true of the Brewers, whose exceptional fielding in recent seasons has been a key to this three-year run atop the National League Central.
“We knew going into this (series) that we needed to play clean baseball to beat that team over there,” Reds veteran Gavin Lux said.
“They don’t strike out. They run the bases extremely well. They present a lot of problems,” Francona said. “Especially if you give them extra opportunities it makes it more difficult.”
Reds starter Zack Littell, making his third start since being acquired in a deadline trade from Tampa Bay, allowed only one run in a sloppy-fielding second inning.
Caleb Durbin scored from first on a Brice Turang double that got over right fielder Noelvi Marte’s head on a bad read. After an ensuing error by Steer at first, Littell got out of it – and retired 13 of the final 16 batters he faced.
That included a leadoff double in the seventh to his last better. Graham Ashcraft took over and stranded the runner at third.
If the Brewers are a litmus test for contender-level baseball right now, the Reds are failing the test, no matter how close they might have seemed the last two nights.
But Littell said it’s not so much about the Brewers as it is the Reds’ own expectations. And not just in the field.
“We got to be a little crisper on defense. We got to be better on the pitching staff going out there and attacking guys. It’s really all around,” he said. “I think everybody in here would point to themselves and say that we’ve got to be better.”
If you want to play October baseball, it requires that level of play. I thnk that’s the expectation eery night.”