Woodruff Deals, Wild Pitches Sink Reds in 2-1 Loss

Brandon Woodruff threw six innings of one-hit, zero-walk ball with 10 strikeouts, and Milwaukee still needed a pair of wild pitches to actually win this game. The Brewers escaped Cincinnati with a 2-1 final, a result that looks more like a pitching showcase than a baseball game.

For nine innings, this was a duel that neither offense deserved to win. Woodruff was untouchable — 6.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 10 K — and Brady Singer matched the moment on the other side, going 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 K for Cincinnati. Two hits allowed combined through 13 innings of starting pitching. The story of the night was that the bats were almost entirely irrelevant, and the game was always going to be decided by something strange.

The strange arrived in the tenth. Joey Ortiz hit a sacrifice fly to right, scoring Bauers and moving Garrett Mitchell to third — Milwaukee 1, Cincinnati 0. Then Santillan uncorked a wild pitch, and Mitchell scored to make it 2-0. The scoring sequence lists that wild pitch entry twice, which appears to be a data artifact — the score held at MIL 2, CIN 0 after Mitchell crossed. Cincinnati got one back when Sal Stewart grounded out to third and Dunn scored, but that was as close as the Reds would get. Stewart finished 0-for-4 with that RBI groundout as his lone contribution. Brice Turang went 2-for-4 to pace Milwaukee's modest offense, while Mitchell scored the decisive run after going 1-for-3.

The biggest moment of the night, mathematically, came when Stewart's groundout plated Dunn — Cincinnati's home win probability swung from 14% to 5% on that play, a 9-point drop that effectively closed the door. The Reds had already been living on borrowed time, and that groundout confirmed it. Aaron Ashby tossed a clean 1.0 IP, 0 H, 2 K frame for Milwaukee to help seal it; Sam Moll matched him with a 1.0 IP, 0 H, 2 K inning for Cincinnati in a losing effort. Worth noting: Elly De La Cruz is expected back from the injured list Tuesday after missing 19 games, per ESPN — though it's hard to imagine one shortstop changing the calculus of a game this thoroughly dominated by pitching. Milwaukee takes the win. Cincinnati takes the loss and waits for reinforcements.