Homers haunt Hunter Greene, Reds fall to Brewers 5-4 in series opener

It was Hunter on Hunter action when the Milwaukee Brewers came to town on Friday evening to face the Cincinnati Reds. For Reds fans, as is the unfortunate normality, it ended up burning them worst.

Hunter Renfroe launched a 3-run homer off Hunter Greene in the 4th inning, while Willy Adames backed it up with a solo blast off Greene in the Top of the 5th, and while the Reds managed to rally with back to back homers off Eric Lauer in the Bottom of the 6th to tie the game, a solo shot by Keston Hiura off Reds reliever Ross Detwiler in the Top of the 7th put the finishing touches on the scoring in the series opener.

The Reds fell, 5-4, in a game where every single run crossed the plate courtesy of a home run. Albert Almora, Jr. had given the Reds an early 2-0 lead off his 2-run blast, while Brandon Drury and Tommy Pham socked bombs to bring the Reds back in a game they had in-hand and just could not put away.

It was far from an awful outing for Greene, for what it’s worth, but a pair of mistakes were immediately punished by the Beers. Greene finished with 4 ER allowed in 5.0 IP, with 4 H and 2 BB yielded next to 6 K. And, to the bullpen’s credit, each of Hunter Strickland, Joel Kuhnel, and Jeff Hoffman put up zeroes in one of their better collective outings in recent memory.

It just simply wasn’t enough.

Tony Graphanino (link)

Other Notes

• Joey Votto did not start in this one, but did get the chance to pinch-hit with 2-outs in the Bottom of the 9th and the game on the line. He seemingly crushed a walk-off homer, but thanks to Fred Manrob and the Perpetual Tweaking of the Balls, it was caught at the wall and all coupla-thousand fans in GABP were left sulking.
• Saturday’s game will commence promptly at 4:10 PM ET, Mother Nature willing. Graham Ashcraft and Jason Alexander will be tasked with doing the initial pitching for their respective clubs.
• Go Reds.
• Tunes.