The Milwaukee Brewers will look to take the first three games of the four-game set and clinch the series victory as they take on the host Cincinnati Reds on Sunday afternoon.
After going just 11-16 in May, the first-place Brewers have won the first two games of this divisional rivalry with tight victories: 5-4 on Friday night in 11 innings and 10-8 on Saturday afternoon.
Saturday was first time the Brewers scored at least 10 runs in a game since April 14 against San Diego. They finished with 11 hits Saturday and scored all of their runs in the first four innings.
“The at-bats were good; we laid off pitches,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “We were patient, made the pitchers think. We put up a good offensive day.”
A big part of the Brewers’ big run total was Blake Perkins, who was recalled Saturday from Triple-A Nashville. In just the 11th game of his big-league career, he hit a grand slam and an RBI single.
Despite Perkins and the Brewers putting Cincinnati in an early 10-3 deficit on Saturday, the Reds put up a fight and even had the winning run on base in their ninth-inning rally.
“To come back in a game when you’re down like that and give yourself an opportunity to win, there’s a lot to be said for that,” Reds manager David Bell said. “We kept playing our game; all the guys in the dugout were really believing we were gonna come back and win that thing.”
Adrian Houser (1-1, 4.07 ERA) will take the mound for the Brewers on Sunday and will look to bounce back from his first rough outing of the season. The right-hander had not allowed more than three earned runs in his first four starts this season but got tagged for six earned runs in 4 1/3 innings vs. Toronto on Tuesday, picking up the loss.
For Cincinnati, right-hander Ben Lively (3-2, 1.99) will take the hill. He has struck out 24 in 22 2/3 innings this season.
This four-game set will continue Monday night. This series is the Brewers’ first against Cincinnati this season with three more three-game sets scheduled, all of which will be in July.
–Field Level Media
