Mitchell Goes 4-for-4, Brewers Hold Off Reds 4-2

Garrett Mitchell was untouchable on Thursday, going 4-for-4 with a go-ahead triple that swung Milwaukee's win probability from 67% to 85% in the seventh. The Brewers held on from there, sending Cincinnati home with a 4-2 defeat.

Milwaukee jumped on Andrew Abbott early. In the first, Chourio scored on a Contreras groundout, and Turang came home on a Bauers sacrifice fly to put the Brewers up 2-0 before Cincinnati had even settled in. Abbott's command looked shaky all night — he walked five batters over five innings — and the early deficit put the Reds in a hole they'd only briefly escape. Noelvi Marte gave Cincinnati life in the second, launching a 378-foot homer to left that scored Stephenson and knotted the game at 2-2. For a stretch, it looked like Marte's two-run shot might be the defining swing of the afternoon.

It wasn't. The seventh inning belonged entirely to Mitchell. With the score tied, he ripped a triple to center that scored Vaughn and pushed Milwaukee back in front 3-2 — the single play that swung the home win probability from 67% to 85%. Mitchell then scored on a Burke wild pitch to make it 4-2, and that was the ballgame. Shane Drohan had already done his part, working 5.2 innings and striking out seven while allowing just two earned runs. Aaron Ashby and Trevor Megill each came on in relief and combined for 2.1 scoreless innings, holding the Reds at bay the rest of the way.

The story of the night was Mitchell's near-perfect performance at the plate. Going 4-for-4 against a pitching staff is the kind of output that carries a lineup, and it appears Milwaukee leaned on that production at exactly the right moment. For Cincinnati, Marte's homer and a 2-for-4 night from both Stephenson and Elly De La Cruz were bright spots, but the Reds couldn't manufacture anything after the second inning. Abbott's five walks were a quiet killer — you can survive giving up contact, but free passes in a low-scoring game tend to come back around. Milwaukee's bullpen made sure they didn't have to find out.