Brewers beat Reds 5-3 in Marty Brennaman’s final game

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

Aristides Aquino hit another homer as part of his 3 for 4 day, and that was the lone real highlight for the Cincinnati Reds in this, their final home game of the 2019 season.

The Milwaukee Brewers are good, folks, and are playing their best ball of the year despite the injury to superstar Christian Yelich. It’s never fun to finish the year by being swept, but this Beers club is a fun watch, and given their expected competition in the NL playoffs, I think I’ll firmly be rooting for them as the underdogs this October.

As for the Reds, well...once again, there’s always next year.

Key Plays

• Aquino, as he his wont to do, socked a dinger in the Bottom of the 1st, a solo shot that gave the Reds an early 1-0 lead.
• Walks, as they are wont to do, haunt. That was the case against Luis Castillo in the Top of the 4th, as he issued a trio of walks before Orlando Arcia smacked a liner into left-center that Josh VanMeter initially appeared to stretch and catch, only for it to fall out of his glove for a 2-out, 3-run double that pretty well summed up the 2019 Reds season. Ben Gamel later added another RBI double, and the Reds trailed, 4-1.
• A 1-out walk of Yasmani Grandal again haunted Castillo in the Top of the 5th, as an inevitable RBI double from Bill Hall All Star Manny Pina plated him, leaving the Reds behind 5-1.
• The Reds picked up another run in the Bottom of the 6th, and it came after Phil Ervin led off the inning with a double to the wall in CF and later scored on a fister of a single by Kyle Farmer. Reds trailed, 5-2.
• Back to back doubles by Ervin and Jose Iglesias in the Bottom of the 8th plated another run, but that was sadly the final offense the club could muster on the day. Reds lost, 5-3.

Tony Graphanino

Other Notes

• As you were probably well aware, today marked the final broadcast in the Hall of Fame career of Marty Brennaman. We discussed that at length last night in the latest episode of the RR Podcast (even though audio issues carved off the final few minutes of the episode), doing our best to pool our thoughts on his retirement after 46 seasons. Congrats on a great run, Marty.
• Luis Castillo’s brilliant 2019 season ended with a dud. His final line today: 5 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, 4 BB, 8 K on 87 pitches, raising his season ERA to 3.40 - the highest it has been all year.
• Tomorrow, the Reds will begin their final series of 2019, and they’ll do so in Pittsburgh against the Pirates. First pitch Friday is set for 7:05 PM ET, and will feature Anthony DeSclafani opposite Steven Brault.
• Tunes, or something similar.