Reds 9, Brewers 4: The road woes continue as Cincinnati tees off on Adrian Houser and the bullpen
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CINCINNATI – Whatever good juju the Milwaukee Brewers might have generated in the short term with their trade for shortstop Willy Adames was quickly vaporized a few hours later.
The offense was a no-show yet again and Adrian Houser was hit the hardest he’s been hit all season in an ugly 9-4 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Friday night at Great American Ball Park.
Sans Adames and right-hander Trevor Richards – both of whom were in transit from the Tampa Bay Rays and expected to be in uniform for Saturday afternoon’s game – the Brewers managed to eke out a single run in five innings against pedestrian right-hander Jeff Hoffman, on a bases-loaded walk in the second.
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Other than that it was too much Jesse Winker, who hit three of the Reds’ four homers, and more futility with runners in scoring position (1 for 9) against a Cincinnati team that was coming off a 19-4 loss a day earlier.
Having short-handed bullpen behind Houser didn’t help matters as Milwaukee dropped to 0-3 on its road trip, with all three losses brutal in their own way. They are 11-11 away from American Family Field after starting 9-3.
The Brewers finally strung some offense together in the seventh with Jackie Bradley Jr. singling, Luis Urías doubling and Billy McKinney’s sac fly making it 6-2.
Kolten Wong, up next, was hit in the upper arm by a Lucas Sims pitch. Lorenzo Cain doubled Urías in and Wong over to third before Christian Yelich’s bouncer to third plated Wong to pull Milwaukee to within 6-4.
The RBI was Yelich’s second of the season and first since opening day.
BOX SCORE: Reds 9, Brewers 4
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Wong was lifted between innings in favor of Daniel Robertson, who had been reinstated from the injured list before the game. Manager Craig Counsell said afterward that X-rays on Wong’s elbow were negative.
In a quarter-season or so that’s included plenty of defensive highlights by their outfielders, Cain might have made the best play to date in the seventh.
With Josh Lindblom pitching, Tyler Stephenson opened with a liner to left-center that Cain, running at absolute full speed, reeled in before losing his balance and ending up on his belly on the warning track just shy of the wall.
Even the Reds’ fans gave Cain an ovation for the effort.
But a pair of two-out walks issued by Lindblom came back to bite him later in the inning, and Winker then took him deep in the eighth to make it a 9-4 game. It was the first-ever three-homer game for Winker, who reached base in all five of his plate appearances.
The tone was set early, as after the Brewers went down in order in the top of the first, Winker led off the bottom of the frame with a single, Stephenson drew a one-out walk and Tyler Naquin launched a 459-foot home run out to right field that left his bat at 112.6 mph.
Milwaukee was able to answer back with a run against Hoffman in the second, making him work mightily in the process.
Daniel Vogelbach reached on a one-out infield single, then Travis Shaw, Bradley and Urías all worked full counts before walking, with Urías’s free pass getting the Brewers onto the board.
Houser followed by striking out, giving Wong a chance with the bases loaded. But he grounded out, leaving Milwaukee to settle for a 3-1 deficit and Hoffman at 50 pitches with Amir Garrett warming in the bullpen.
After Cain led off the third with a single only to be left stranded at third, Winker opened the bottom of the frame by homering to center.
It was the team-leading seventh allowed by the right-hander, fourth in his last four starts and the first time he’d allowed more than one. Houser entered on the heels of his worst start of the season, a three-inning, five-walk effort in a loss to the Atlanta Braves.
Hoffman worked around a leadoff walk in the fourth. Then, after Houser stranded a pair of his own free passes in the bottom of the frame, Hoffman struck out Wong and Yelich in a 1-2-3 fifth – his first such inning of the game and a strong response to his early struggles.
Houser, meanwhile, went the other way as Winker homered to right-center, Nick Castellanos singled and Stephenson walked to end the right-hander’s night at 91 pitches.
Angel Perdomo took over and after issuing a walk to start allowed only a run on a sacrifice fly by Tucker Barnhart – a great job minimizing the damage in what could have been a true blowup inning.
The book also closed on Houser (3-5), as he was tagged for five hits, six runs (earned) and four walks while striking out four.
RECORD
Overall: 21-23
Home: 10-12
Away: 11-11
COMING UP
Saturday: Brewers at Reds, 3:10 p.m. Milwaukee LHP Brett Anderson (2-3, 4.50) vs. Cincinnati RHP Sonny Gray (0-3, 3.86). TV: Bally Sports Wisconsin plus. Radio: AM-620.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Reds 9, Brewers 4: The road woes continue as Cincinnati tees off on Adrian Houser and the bullpen