Brewers flatten Reds with 23-hit outburst as Turang, Contreras and Mitchell drive 20-0 rout

The game was bent by the second inning

Milwaukee did not need long to show what kind of night Cincinnati had walked into. The Brewers scored twice in the first, first on William Contreras’ sacrifice fly to center that brought home Jackson Chourio, then on Andrew Vaughn’s double to left that scored Brice Turang when JJ Bleday’s fielding error helped the play along. A 2-0 lead is ordinary. The way it arrived — contact, advancement, and a defensive mistake folded into the same inning — hinted that Milwaukee’s offense was going to keep asking the same question until the Reds found an answer.

They never did. The second inning turned the game from uncomfortable to lopsided. Chourio opened the flood with a ground-rule double that scored Cooper Pratt. Turang followed with a three-run homer to right-center, a 382-foot shot that also brought home Garrett Mitchell and Chourio. Jake Bauers then added a 412-foot two-run homer to center, scoring Vaughn. By the time Andrew Abbott’s night ended, his line sat at 2.0 innings, nine hits, eight runs and two home runs allowed. That is not just a rough start; it is the sort of opening that changes what the rest of the night can realistically be.

And because Cincinnati had almost nothing going at the plate, that early hole felt final almost as soon as it formed. Dustin May covered six scoreless innings for Milwaukee, allowing only two hits and one walk while striking out six on 84 pitches. Both Reds hits belonged to Sal Stewart, who finished 2-for-4. Garrett Stallings handled the final three innings without allowing a hit, walking one and striking out two. The Brewers did not merely build a lead; they paired it with a two-hit shutout.

Milwaukee kept adding chapters

There was a brief pause in the third, but not a reset. The Brewers resumed in the fourth when Bauers singled to center and Turang scored on a fielding error by center fielder Carlos Jorge. That made it 9-0, and it underscored a miserable pattern for Cincinnati: the Reds were already being beaten by Milwaukee’s bats, and their own defense kept making the damage worse. Two Brewers runs were directly tied to Reds errors, one in the first and another in the fourth.

The fifth inning was the real avalanche. Chourio singled to left to score Mitchell. Turang doubled to center to bring in Joey Ortiz. Contreras then singled to center, scoring Chourio and David Hamilton. Before the inning was finished, Mitchell crushed a 420-foot grand slam to center, scoring Contreras, Luis Lara and Pratt. In one inning, Milwaukee turned 9-0 into 17-0. Luis Mey absorbed the worst of it for Cincinnati, charged with eight runs on eight hits in just 1.0 inning.

By the eighth, the Brewers had room to add style points, and Contreras supplied them with a 388-foot three-run homer to left that scored Ortiz and Hamilton. His final line — 2-for-5 with six RBI — was the loudest on a lineup card full of noise. Turang went 3-for-3 with four RBI, three runs and a homer. Mitchell finished 3-for-5 with four RBI and the grand slam. Chourio went 4-for-6 with three runs and two RBI, and Ortiz was 4-for-5 with two runs. Twenty runs can sometimes feel anonymous in print. This one did not.

Our take: one club was relentless, the other was exposed

Milwaukee’s most impressive trait in this game was not simply power, though four home runs will always command attention. It was range. The Brewers scored in five different innings, and they did it with a sacrifice fly, doubles, singles and home runs. They were not dependent on one hitter or one burst. That kind of spread matters. Our take: even in a 20-run game, there is still room for polish — Milwaukee committed an error and left 14 runners on base — but those are the complaints of a team that produced offense from nearly every corner of the order.

Cincinnati’s to-do list is less cosmetic. Our take: the first repair is stopping innings from becoming disasters. Abbott allowed eight runs in 2.0 innings, and Mey gave up another eight in 1.0. The defense added two errors, both of which showed up in scoring plays. At the plate, the Reds finished 2-for-30 with no extra-base hits, two walks and eight strikeouts. Stewart collected both hits; Elly De La Cruz and Eugenio Suarez drew the walks. When a team produces only four baserunners all night, there is not much pressure to apply and even less margin for pitching mistakes.

The final score can make analysis feel unnecessary, but this game still drew a clean distinction. Milwaukee did not live on free passes — the Brewers walked only twice — so most of this damage came from repeated contact and repeated punishment of hittable pitching. Cincinnati, meanwhile, got no sustained offense and too little resistance once trouble began. That is how a baseball game becomes a 20-0 result without needing any mystery to explain it. The Brewers were productive inning after inning. The Reds were overwhelmed almost from the start.

Scoring moments

1. 1st Inning

   Contreras hit sacrifice fly to center, Chourio scored.

2. 1st Inning

   Vaughn doubled to left, Turang scored on fielding error by left fielder Bleday.

3. 2nd Inning

   Chourio hit a ground rule double, Pratt scored, Mitchell to third.

4. 2nd Inning

   Turang homered to right center (382 feet), Mitchell scored and Chourio scored.

5. 2nd Inning

   Bauers homered to center (412 feet), Vaughn scored.

6. 4th Inning

   Bauers singled to center, Turang scored on fielding error by center fielder Jorge.

7. 5th Inning

   Chourio singled to left, Mitchell scored, Ortiz to second.

8. 5th Inning

   Turang doubled to center, Ortiz scored, Chourio to third.

9. 5th Inning

   Contreras singled to center, Chourio scored and Hamilton scored.

10. 5th Inning

    Mitchell homered to center (420 feet), Contreras scored, Lara scored and Pratt scored.

11. 8th Inning

    Contreras homered to left (388 feet), Ortiz scored and Hamilton scored.