Pratt's Triple Caps Five-Run Fifth, Brewers Escape Cincinnati 10-7

Cooper Pratt drove in 4 runs on 1 hit — a bases-clearing triple in the fifth — and Milwaukee erased a two-run deficit to beat Cincinnati 10-7 on September 4. The Brewers scored five times in a single inning to flip a game that, just two innings earlier, looked like it was slipping away for good.

Cincinnati struck first when De La Cruz singled to left to score Myers in the first, and the Reds kept the pressure on in the second. McLain's 391-foot homer to left center scored Suárez and pushed Cincinnati to 3-2. Milwaukee answered immediately in the third — Turang's double to right scored Contreras and Chourio to put the Brewers back in front 4-3 — but the lead lasted about five minutes. Suárez crushed a 408-foot shot to center, scoring De La Cruz and Stephenson, and just like that Cincinnati led 6-4. That swing was the biggest moment of the night by the numbers: Cincinnati's win probability jumped from 34% to 66% on that one swing of the bat.

Then came the fifth, and it unraveled fast for the Reds. Shane Drohan — who had been absorbing damage all night, allowing 6 earned runs in 4.0 innings — was gone, and Cincinnati's bullpen couldn't hold the fort either. Turang got hit by a pitch to score Chourio, cutting it to 6-5. Then Pratt lined a triple to right that cleared the bases, scoring Yelich, Contreras, and Turang to put Milwaukee up 8-6. It didn't stop there: Pratt scored on a wild pitch to make it 9-6, and the inning's damage was done. Contreras added an insurance run with a double to left in the sixth, pushing the lead to 10-6. Cincinnati got one back in the seventh on a Stewart single, but that was as close as it got.

The story of the night was the Brewers' ability to absorb a gut-punch and respond with something bigger. Turang went 3-for-4 with 3 RBI and 2 runs scored — he was in the middle of every meaningful Milwaukee rally. Pratt's 4 RBI on a single hit looks like exactly the kind of opportunistic, high-leverage performance that wins September games. For Cincinnati, De La Cruz went 3-for-5 and Suárez's homer was genuinely impressive, but the pitching — particularly that fifth inning — appears to be the reason this one got away. When a wild pitch scores a run and the inning still isn't over, that's a bad sign for any bullpen.