With so much at stake, the Brewers did way too many things wrong against lowly Reds

CINCINNATI – It was understandable that Craig Counsell couldn’t pinpoint any one thing that led to his team’s ugly loss to the last-place Cincinnati Reds.

When you draw 10 walks and still lose by six runs, where do you even begin?

“I don’t think there’s one spot,” the Brewers manager said late Tuesday night after his club’s frustrating 9-3 loss at Great American Ball Park, the second defeat in two days to a bad club.

“We just didn’t do enough well in all parts of the game. There were offensive opportunities (missed). There were defensive plays (not made). We certainly could have pitched better in spots. This wasn’t a game where one thing went wrong.

“Too much went wrong for us tonight. It was a frustrating night, for sure.”

BOX SCORE:Reds 9, Brewers 3

It started in the third inning when Jonathan Villar, an infielder playing center field to get his better-late-than-never bat in the lineup, couldn’t haul in a long drive by Reds pitcher Robert Stephenson. It was Villar's first time going back on a ball over his head and he looked like, well, an infielder playing center.

That misplay led to a run off Zach Davies but it would seem less important as the night grew longer and the Brewers kept coming up empty when presented banner scoring chances. They loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth against Stephenson, only to have Domingo Santana, Stephen Vogt and Villar strike out.

The Brewers are a swing-and-miss team and they get away with it when they hit home runs. When they don’t go deep, they usually struggle to put together rallies. At this late stage, that isn’t going to change.

The Brewers were so woeful in the clutch that Counsell did something he’d normally never consider. Down, 2-1, in the seventh with a runner on second and no outs, he allowed Villar to bunt, with two strikes no less. It was quite the gamble but Counsell said Villar had confidence to get the bunt down, moving pinch-runner Quintin Berry to third.

“We had this hand signal where he said, ‘I’m going to get the bunt down,’” Counsell said.

Fans of bunting think it’s the answer to world peace but, as so often happens, it didn’t work this time. Orlando Arcia followed with a great at-bat, drawing a walk, but when the Brewers needed a ball put in play, pinch-hitter Jesús Aguilar whiffed.

Eric Sogard drew a two-out walk to load the bases but Neil Walker struck out on three pitches, the last one up and out of the strike zone.

“We had ‘Aggie’ up there, the guy we wanted up there,” Counsell. “We had really good at-bats that inning. We just couldn’t get the hit.

“There were some spots tonight where the strikeout really hurt us. You get men on third with no outs and one out, and the strikeout hurts you bad. That’s tough sledding there.”

The game finally got away when relievers Jacob Barnes (two-thirds of an inning, four runs) and Carlos Torres (one inning, two runs) blew up late. It didn’t help that Wei-Chung Wang surrendered a three-run homer to Scooter Gennett but Barnes (4.40 ERA) and Torres (4.46), who were so dependable throughout 2016, have had many more hiccups this season.

“Carlos hasn’t pitched in a while (Aug. 29 vs. St. Louis); he’s been off for quite a few days,” Counsell said. “Jacob, when there are walks, he’s in trouble. That’s what gets him in trouble, the free passes. He got ahead of hitters and they got back in the counts. That was kind of the story of his outing.”

So, after taking three of four from first-place Washington and embarking on this road trip with high hopes, the Brewers have taken an untimely two-game pratfall. Luckily, the Cubs also have lost two in a row in Pittsburgh, so no ground has been lost in the NL Central race. But that also means it's an opportunity lost.

You hope the Brewers, many of whom are in their first playoff race, didn’t get caught looking ahead to the weekend series in Chicago. With so few games remaining, that would be an egregious mistake. 

“For some reason, we’ve been a little flat here,” said Travis Shaw, who found his missing home-run swing with a two-run shot in the eighth. “They have a good hitting team over there, but at the same time, offensively, we need to do a better job. We had multiple opportunities tonight.

“We haven’t lost ground. The next series is still very meaningful. We want to get out of here on a good note, though, heading into that off day (Thursday). We need to take care of (Wednesday) and worry about this weekend when it comes.”

In other words, the Brewers can't afford another loss to the lowly Reds.