The Reds and Milwaukee Brewers ended the first half of the season with a pitcher's duel. The second half began the same way. The Brewers tied the Reds for first place in the National League Central Division with its second consecutive 1-0 shutout.
Milwaukee scored in the first inning last Sunday and former Red Wade Miley and the Brewers bullpen made it stand up.
Corbin Burnes, who won the Cy Young Award in 2021, struck out 13 Reds' batters through six innings.
"He (Burnes) definitely has good stuff," DAvid Bell said. "He has great stuff. He did it a little bit different than he did in Milwaukee. He threw more breaking balls. I think that led to a lot of his success tonight. Obviously, he has a good fastball but thought. He used the breaking ball more to day and I think that helped him."
Burnes beat the Reds last Friday with six innings of two-run baseball.
Graham Ashcraft, the Reds starter struck out just two but the pitcher's duel lasted into the seventh inning.
"I felt pretty good, Ashcraft said. "I felt there were a lot of things I was doing really well, early on. Sometimes mechanics got a little out of whack but I made a quick fix on them."
"I was able to find that rhythm with my arm and my mechanics (the last three starts). Things started to clean up. I've started to pound the zone a lot more. That's something we've started to get after to make sure that rhythm stays going."
Ashcraft started the season with six quality starts but hit a rough spot that ballooned his ERA to 7.17 until the last three starts, including tonight. He's given up just three runs in his last 18 2/3 innings over three starts.
"Graham is kind of back to where he was at the beginning of the season," Bell said. "I thought he had good movement, going both ways with his fastball. Tonight I think the slider was the difference for him. He gets it set up by having a good fastball. I thought he really located his slider and had a good break on it. It doesn't get much better than that. He was very efficient. Not throwing many pitches, kind of what we've seen Graham do when he's really good."
The closest either team came to scoring was the third inning. Joey Weimer walked and went to second on a ground out. Spencer Steer fielded William Contreras single and threw Weimer out at the plate to end the inning.
The Brewers opened the seventh against Ashcraft with a double by Willy Adames and a single by Owen Miller that sent Adames to third with no outs.
"The slider to Adames wasn't a bad pitch when he hit the double but it just wasn't executed," Ashcraft said. "If it was executed, it probably been strike three, a chase but you never know."
Lucas Sims entered to try to keep the game scoreless, facing Victor Caratini.
Miller stole second and advanced to third on Caratini's RBI single. Sims struck out Andruw Monasterio. Brice Turang struck out swinging. Jesse Winker pinch hit for Tyrone Taylor. Winker walked to load the bases. Weimer popped out to first to keep the game 1-0.
Adames missed his 17th home run by inches with two out in the eighth but his drive was just foul. Derek Law struck him out.
Reds batters struck out 18 times and managed just two hits against Burnes, Peguero, Joel Payamps and Devin Williams,who finished off the home team. It was Williams 21st save in 23 tries.
No comments:
Post a Comment