Avisail Garcia hit a tiebreaking, two-run homer in the eighth inning and the Milwaukee Brewers cooled off the visiting Cincinnati Reds 5-3, matching a season high with their seventh straight home victory, on Thursday night.
With the game tied at 3-3 in the eighth, Omar Narvaez singled off Brad Brach (0-1) for his second hit of the night, and Garcia followed with a blast off the center-field batter’s eye for his team-leading 16th homer.
Garcia had three RBIs, while Keston Hiura doubled twice for the NL Central-leading Brewers, who lead second-place Cincinnati by seven games.
Tucker Barnhart had two hits and an RBI for the Reds, who had won six of their first seven this month.
Milwaukee’s Adrian Houser allowed two singles and a walk to Cincinnati’s first three batters, then struck out Joey Votto and Tyler Naquin and got Eugenio Suarez to pop out.
The Brewers loaded the bases in their half of the first but did not squander the opportunity. Luis Urias scored on Garcia’s dribbler that Reds starter Tyler Mahle couldn’t handle. Mahle issued one of his three walks in the inning to Jace Peterson for a 2-0 Milwaukee lead.
Cincinnati loaded the bases again in the second, this time with one out. And again Houser came out unscathed after fanning Jesse Winker and Nick Castellanos.
However, after loading the bases and chasing Houser with one out in the fifth, Cincinnati finally broke through when wild pitches from Jake Cousins plated Castellanos and Votto. Barnhart gave the visitors a 3-2 lead with an RBI single.
All three runs were charged to Houser, but none were earned thanks to a fielding error on second baseman Peterson to open the fifth. Houser yielded five hits, walked four and fanned six, but he was not saddled with the loss thanks to Hiura’s RBI-tying double in the sixth.
Mahle struck out six while giving up the three runs, four hits and four walks over six innings.
–Field Level Media