The Milwaukee Brewers acknowledged the importance of clinching their eighth postseason berth in nine seasons before quickly focusing on Saturday night’s matchup with the visiting Cincinnati Reds.
The Brewers have not named a starting pitcher, although left-hander Kyle Harrison (10-4, 3.66 ERA) is a possibility after struggling mightily in his last two outings.
Right-hander Brady Singer (6-13, 5.03 ERA) will start on Saturday for the Reds.
The Brewers (92-56), bidding for their fourth consecutive National League Central title, clinched a playoff spot with a 20-0 rout of the Reds in the series opener Friday. Milwaukee, which is a franchise-record 36 games over .500, saw its magic number to clinch the division to four.
Garrett Mitchell had a grand slam, William Contreras homered and drove in a career-high six runs, and Dustin May threw six innings of two-hit ball in his best start since being acquired at the trade deadline from St. Louis last month. Brice Turang and Jake Bauers also went deep in the Brewers’ 23-hit attack.
Milwaukee won its fourth consecutive contest to maintain its 10-game lead in the NL Central over the second-place Chicago Cubs (82-66), who defeated Pittsburgh 12-2. The Brewers remained 1 1/2 games ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers (90-57) in the race for the best overall record in the majors.
The Dodgers swept Milwaukee last season in the NL Championship Series.
“We’ll have our hands full the next 14 games; that’s just all there is to it,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “I think it’s important that we play a certain way and don’t let our guard down. We’re not going to do it at the risk of injury, but this isn’t enough. This group in there, they want more.”
Jackson Chourio continued his hot hitting with four hits Friday for Milwaukee. Chourio is batting .379 with six homers and 18 RBIs over his last 23 games.
Joey Ortiz also had four hits and is hitting .343 with two homers and nine RBIs in his last 21 games. Turang remained hot with three hits and four RBIs. He is batting .394 with 12 RBIs in his last 10 games.
Harrison has lasted just 3 2/3 innings in each of his last two outings, allowing a total of 15 runs (13 earned) on 19 hits. He was 8-1 with a 2.57 ERA at the end of June.
Harrison is 0-1 with a 6.27 ERA in four career appearances vs. Cincinnati.
The shutout loss on Friday was the largest in franchise history for the Reds, who used catcher Jose Trevino to pitch the final two innings.
“It’s not a lot of fun to be a part of that,” Cincinnati manager Terry Francona said afterward. “You try never to make a mockery of the game because people paid money to come, but you get to a point in the game where you don’t want it to affect tomorrow.”
Singer faced the Brewers his last time out, picking up the victory despite giving up six runs in five innings in a 12-8 win Sunday. He allowed four hits but walked a career-high six batters.
Singer is 1-3 with a 6.00 ERA in his last seven starts. His win over the Brewers last week was his first since July 22. He is 3-2 with a 4.70 ERA in six career starts against Milwaukee.
–Field Level Media
