Postgame Takeaways: Cincinnati Reds Beat Milwaukee Brewers 6-5

The Cincinnati Reds beat the Milwaukee Brewers 6-5 on Friday night to take the first game of the three-game series.

The Reds move to 34-35 on the season, while the Brewers fall to 40-29.

Here are our postgame takeaways:

The Bats Came Alive

TJ Friedl started the scoring in the third inning with a home run into the right field seats. It was his fourth of the season. In the fifth, after a Friedl single, Elly De La Cruz hit an RBI triple in the right field gap.

The next batter, Jeimer Caldelario, hit his team-leading 12th home run of the season to give the Reds a 5-1 lead. In the sixth, Jonathan India led off the inning by getting hit by a pitch. He stole second and scored on a Friedl RBI single, his third hit of the day. The top five batters in the Reds lineup were 9-for-22 with one walk, two doubles, one triple, and one home run on the night.

Hunter Greene's Bizarre Start

After a couple of days of extra rest, Hunter Greene came out throwing heat, striking out two batters in the first inning on pitches over 100 mph. With runners on the corners and only one out in the fifth, Greene got a strikeout and a flyout to keep it a 5-2 ballgame. It was a game where he didn't have his best command, walking five batters. However, he was able to limit the Brewers to two runs and only three hits. He struck out five batters.

A Tough Night for the Reds Defense

The Reds made five errors on the night. In the fifth inning, De La Cruz bobbled a would-be double play ball and then made an errant throw over to first base. In the sixth inning, with two outs and a man on third, Candelario misplayed a ball, hurried his throw, and threw it offline to first base. In the ninth on a chopper up in the middle, De La Cruz misplayed a ball for his third error of the game.

Bullpen Survived

Coming into today's game, the Reds bullpen had a 2.60 ERA when leading this year. That is the fourth-best in Major League Baseball. Nick Martinez pitched the sixth inning and gave up a run, but it was unearned. Justin Wilson tossed a scoreless seventh inning. In the eighth, the Brewers had runners on first and second with one out, but Fernando Cruz was able to get a pop-out and a strikeout to end the scoring threat.

Things got juicy in the ninth inning with Alexis Diaz on the mound. Christian Yelich and Willy Adames started out the ninth inning with singles before Rhys Hoskins reached on an error to load the bases. Cruz got the next batter to line out to India.

With the bases still loaded, Diaz walked in a run and then Jackson Chourio singled on a line drive to right fielder Will Benson to bring in a run, but Benson threw a laser to Tyler Stephenson to nail the would-be tying run at the plate. Jake Bauers was ruled safe at first, but the Reds challenged the call and it was overturned. Blake Perkins tried to bunt with two outs and a runner on third, but it was popped up to Diaz and the Reds survived.

Up Next

The Reds will face the Brewers in game two of the series on Saturday at 4:10 p.m. ET.

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