8 is enough: Milwaukee Brewers avoid sweep behind Kyle Lohse, Jean Segura
By Phil Watson
Kyle Lohse pitched like, well, Kyle Lohse and that gave the Milwaukee Brewers a chance on Thursday.
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And when Jean Segura delivered an actual, honest-to-goodness clutch hit in the bottom of the seventh inning of the matinee against the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday afternoon, the Brewers had the recipe for breaking an eight-game losing streak with a 4-2 victory at Miller Park.
Lohse (1-3) dropped his ERA by nearly three full runs with a solid seven-inning performance—his longest of the season, holding the Reds to two runs on three hits with a walk and four strikeouts. After four starts, Lohse’s ERA stands at 7.94; he came into Thursday’s start with an unsightly 10.34 mark.
“The ‘different’ Lohse was the one we saw in the starts before,” center fielder Logan Schafer told MLB.com. “He even said, ‘I’m feeling it.’ When he knows where he’s throwing his pitches and when the guys are going to swing and miss, it’s going to be a fun day.”
It was the first time this season the Brewers (3-13) have gotten back-to-back quality starts and Lohse’s control was spot on—62 of his 89 pitches were strikes.
The Brewers took an early 1-0 lead when Adam Lind led off the bottom of the second with his second home run of the season off Reds’ starter Homer Bailey, a line drive the opposite way to left-center.
The Reds finally got to Lohse—who retired the first nine batters he faced and only saw the minimum through four innings—in the fifth.
Apr 23, 2015; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Milwaukee Brewers shortstop Jean Segura (9) drives in a run with a base hit in the seventh inning during the game against the Cincinnati Reds at Miller Park. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports
After allowing a leadoff single to Brandon Phillips and striking out Jay Bruce, Marlon Byrd put a charge in a slider that hung, sending it over the wall in right-center for his first homer of the year.
But Aramis Ramirez led off the bottom of the fifth with a liner to left-center that got out for his first home run of the campaign.
And then in the top of the sixth, Martin Maldonado did something no catcher in baseball had done through the first two-plus weeks of the season.
Reds’ speedster Billy Hamilton reached on a one-out walk and after Zack Cozart popped out, Hamilton and Lohse played a game of cat-and-mouse, with the veteran right-hander varying his delivery with every pitch to try to keep Hamilton close.
With a 2-2 count to Joey Votto, Hamilton broke for second and Maldonado gunned him down with amazing ease. More remarkably, Maldonado did it on a pitch that was in the dirt—one of the toughest throws for a catcher to make.
Hamilton had been 9-for-9 on stolen-base attempts this season to that point. It was the first time he had been caught stealing since Welington Castillo of the Chicago Cubs got him last Sept. 16.
It was Schafer that started the game-winning rally in the seventh, drawing a leadoff walk from Reds right-hander Kevin Gregg.
Maldonado followed with a sacrifice to move Schafer up to second base before pinch-hitter Gerardo Parra—batting for Lohse—struck out.
Jean Segura moved into the box with Schafer on second base. That had many fans recalling the previous night, when Schafer doubled in the eighth and Segura bunted him to third.
But on Wednesday, there were no outs. On Thursday, there was one and Segura was swinging. He lined a fastball from Gregg into center field to score Schafer and put the Crew up 3-2.
Milwaukee added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth off former Brewer Manny Parra. Ryan Braun singled, moved up to second on Jason Rogers’ single to left and then scored after swiping third base—his first steal of the season—when Cincinnati third baseman Kristopher Negron couldn’t handle the throw from catcher Tucker Barnhart.
After Jonathan Broxton struck out the side in the eighth, Francisco Rodriguez worked around a double by Cozart with two outs, getting Votto to bounce out to end it ad earn his second save of the season after taking the loss on Wednesday with a ninth-inning wild pitch.
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“It was good to come off the field and shake hands,” Lohse told MLB.com. “We have to keep it going. We can’t get them all back right now; we have to keep our heads down and keep grinding it out. That’s all we can do.”
Lind swung a hot bat for the Brewers, who banged out 10 hits, going 3-for-4 with a double along with his second-inning homer. Braun was 2-for-4 as well, raising his average to .259.
With the win, the Brewers avoided their first four-game sweep at home to Cincinnati (8-8) since May 2002.
Right-hander Matt Garza (1-2, 5.40 ERA) takes the mound Friday at 7:10 p.m. at Miller Park when the Crew looks for its first back-to-back victories of the season against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Right-hander Carlos Martinez (1-0, 2.08 ERA) get the ball for the Cards, who took two of three from Milwaukee at Busch Stadium last week.