The Cincinnati Reds will hope to end what’s been a brutal road trip on a high note Sunday when they face the Milwaukee Brewers for the final time this season.
Manager Terry Francona’s team is 0-5 against the Los Angeles Dodgers and Brewers so far on their six-game road trip and is a loss away from being swept on a multi-stop trip for the second time this season. Cincinnati (69-79) started May losing three at Pittsburgh and then four at the Chicago Cubs, a stretch that derailed a 20-11 start to this season.
Reds ace Chase Burns (15-3, 2.73 ERA) will start Sunday’s game, but the right-hander, 23, will be on a short leash as he’s thrown 148 1/3 innings already in his first full big-league season. He owns a win this season against the Brewers (93-56), having allowed two runs on four hits and two walks and struck out four in the 7-2 Reds road victory over Milwaukee ace Jacob Misiorowski on July 2.
Factoring in a relief appearance last season, Burns is 1-0 with a 2.35 ERA in 7 2/3 innings with eight strikeouts.
Even if the Reds salvage Sunday’s finale, it will not atone for a historically bad stretch for the team’s pitchers. After a 14-1 loss to the Dodgers on Wednesday, the Reds were blown out 20-0 by Milwaukee on Friday and lost 13-9 Saturday.
According to Stathead, the 47 runs are the most any team has given up over a three-game span this season and are the most the Reds have yielded since 1901. They gave up a record 51 from Sept. 22-24 of that season and 50 from Sept. 23-25.
Dating back to 1898, only those instances from nearly 125 years ago top what the team has allowed in its past three games. It’s put Francona in a tough position as he tries to finish out the final two weeks of the season.
“Just making sure they understand that we don’t want to hurt anybody,” Francona said when asked about handling the staff. “We got innings to fill, and we care about them. And they’re OK.”
Robert Gasser (4-5, 4.43) is the scheduled starter for the Brewers. The left-hander, 27, has faced the Reds twice as a starter, going 0-1 with a 3.24 ERA in 8 1/3 innings. He threw 5 2/3 innings in Cincinnati on June 29, giving up three runs in the Brewers’ 5-3 win.
Offensively for Milwaukee, Garrett Mitchell is 7-for-10 in the first two games of the series with two home runs and eight RBIs. The two four-RBI performances are one off his season-high, which he achieved on April 4 in a 5-2 win at Kansas City.
Not all, though, has gone right for Milwaukee of late. On Saturday, manager Pat Murphy brought starter Kyle Harrison to pitch in relief for the first time this season. Harrison, who last pitched last Sunday in Cincinnati, had given up 16 runs (14 earned) in his previous three starts, a total of 12 1/3 innings.
Coming in to start the eighth up 13-5, Harrison did not record an out as all four Reds batters he faced got a hit and scored. On Aug. 18, after he was the winning pitcher in Milwaukee’s 22-0 romp over the Seattle Mariners, Harrison had a 2.84 ERA and a 10-3 record. Since then, he is 0-1 with a 12.41 ERA in 12 1/3 innings, raising his season ERA to 3.98.
Murphy, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, said after the win that Harrison may be dealing with a confidence issue that’s starting to affect him physically.
“We’ll get this straight,” he said. “This will happen. We’re going through a rough patch.”
–Field Level Media
