Ryan Braun has struggled with a thumb injury in the second half of the season. UPI/Bill Greenblatt
The Milwaukee Brewers offensive struggles continued last night as they took another step towards official playoff elimination. Cincinnati’s Johnny Cueto pitched eight innings of four-hit ball to lead the Reds to a 3-1 win over the Brewers at Great American Ball Park.
Along with Pittsburgh’s 3-2 victory in Atlanta last night, the Brewers can no longer catch the Pirates for a wild-card playoff berth. Their elimination number dropped to one, any combination of a single Brewers defeat or a San Francisco Giants victory and the Brewers will be eliminated.
The Brewers have dropped 5 of their last 6 games. The Brewers have scored two or fewer runs in all six of those games.
The Brewers led the National League Central for 150 days. But after beating the San Diego Padres on Aug. 25th, they’ve gone 7-19. The Pirates went 19-7 during that stretch to turned a six game deficit into a six game advantage on the Brewers.
Mike Fiers (6-4) allowed two runs in his five innings of work. Both runs came on first inning homers by Todd Frazier and Devin Mesoraco.
The Brewers only run came on a Carlos Gomez solo home run in the 6th inning to make it a 2-1 game, but that’s all the scoring they would do. The Brewers did have another chance in the 7th with runners at first and second and nobody out, but Ryan Braun grounded into a double play and Gerardo Parra fouled out.
Aroldis Chapman came on in the ninth to secure the Reds victory, earning the save.
The Brewers send Kyle Lohse (12-9, 3.71) to the mound tonight against Cincinnati’s Daniel Corcino (0-1, 4.40).