Three Reds Homers, Two Wild Pitches Sink Milwaukee 5-3

Cincinnati needed three home runs and a pair of wild pitches to put Milwaukee away, but they got exactly that in a 5-3 win on September 5. The story of the night was a game that swung on a 352-foot shot from Matt McLain — and then got sealed by the most unglamorous play in baseball.

The first inning set the tone for a slugfest. William Contreras got Milwaukee on the board first, sending a 401-foot shot to center to make it 1-0. Elly De La Cruz answered immediately — and emphatically — with a 438-foot blast to center of his own, knotting it at 1-1. Both starters, Andrew Abbott and Dustin May, were dealing through the early chaos: Abbott went 4.0 innings, allowing 3 hits and 1 earned run with 5 strikeouts; May lasted 3.2 innings, giving up 5 hits and 2 earned runs, also with 5 strikeouts. Neither walked a batter. The game had the feel of two offenses refusing to blink.

Milwaukee grabbed a 2-1 lead in the third when a Lara groundout to first scored David Hamilton, but Cincinnati tied it again in the fourth on a Trevino single to right that scored Bleday. Tyler Stephenson then gave the Reds the lead for good — or so it looked — with a 392-foot homer to left in the sixth, making it 3-2 Cincinnati. Jackson Chourio's sacrifice fly to center in the seventh scored Pratt and knotted it at 3-3, and for a moment Milwaukee looked like it had the momentum. Then McLain stepped in. His 352-foot homer to right in the seventh swung the win probability from 51% to 74% in Cincinnati's favor — a 23-point shift that effectively decided the game. That's the kind of swing that makes a bullpen exhale and an opposing dugout go quiet.

The Reds weren't done making it interesting, though. In the eighth, Suárez scored on a wild pitch by Milwaukee's Anderson — and then, remarkably, the scoring sequence shows Suárez scored on an Anderson wild pitch again in the same inning, pushing the final to 5-3. It appears the sequence reflects a data quirk, but the outcome is plain: Cincinnati's lead grew to two runs and held. DL Hall was solid in relief for Milwaukee, going 1.1 innings with 2 hits, 0 earned runs, and 3 strikeouts, but the damage was already done. Tejay Antone closed it out for Cincinnati with a clean inning — no hits, 3 strikeouts, 1 walk. Three Cincinnati hitters went deep, the bullpen protected the lead, and Milwaukee's late rally fell one run short.