Suárez flips it, Stephenson finishes it as Reds slip past Brewers 4-3

The inning that turned the whole game

Milwaukee’s advantage came from the cleanest piece of offense either team produced early. In the second inning, Joey Ortiz drove a ball 408 feet to center and brought Christian Yelich home with him, giving the Brewers a 2-0 lead. That was enough to put the Reds in chase mode, especially against a Milwaukee staff that kept Cincinnati off the board through the first five innings.

The opening stretch was uneven for Reds starter Chase Burns, who struck out five in three innings but also walked three and needed 56 pitches to get through his outing. The Brewers did not pile up hits against him, yet Ortiz’s homer let them convert a short burst into a lead. Cincinnati badly needed a calmer middle portion of the game, and Brandon Williamson supplied it, covering four innings and allowing only one run.

That breathing room mattered because the entire afternoon swung in the sixth. Elly De La Cruz and Sal Stewart, the two Reds hitters who kept showing up on base, were both aboard when Eugenio Suárez launched a three-run homer to right-center. One pitch erased Milwaukee’s lead and replaced it with a 3-2 Cincinnati edge. It was Suárez’s only hit of the game, but it was the game’s loudest reversal: three RBIs in a contest that ended with a one-run margin.

A tie that barely lasted

The Brewers did answer, and they answered the same way they started: with power. Jake Bauers homered to right-center in the seventh, a 386-foot shot that tied the game at 3-3. Milwaukee had now scored all three of its runs on two swings, which is a useful way to stay close but a risky way to try to control a full nine innings.

The tie did not survive long. In the eighth, De La Cruz crossed the plate again, this time on Tyler Stephenson’s sacrifice fly to right. It was not as dramatic as Suárez’s blast, but in a 4-3 game it was every bit as valuable. Cincinnati had spent much of the day creating traffic without fully cashing it in; Stephenson’s at-bat at least turned one of those chances into the run that decided the game.

From there, the Reds finished the job with a straightforward bullpen ending. Brock Burke handled the eighth without allowing a run, Emilio Pagán worked the ninth for the save, and Milwaukee’s late push stopped one run short. The Brewers did put together six hits overall, but only two came after Bauers tied it, and neither turned into the equalizer.

The numbers behind the narrow margin

This was not a game of overwhelming offense from either side. Cincinnati collected eight hits to Milwaukee’s six, but the Reds also stranded 13 runners. De La Cruz went 2-for-5 and scored twice, Stewart was 2-for-4 and scored once, and Stephenson added a hit, a walk and the decisive sacrifice fly. Suárez supplied the impact line: one hit, one home run, three RBIs. That combination explains the result better than any broad claim of control would.

Milwaukee’s box line told a different kind of story. The Brewers hit two home runs and still lost because the rest of the attack never built enough around them. Brice Turang reached three times with a 2-for-3 day and a walk, Yelich scored on Ortiz’s homer, and Cooper Pratt added a hit. But Jackson Chourio went 0-for-4, Gary Sánchez went 0-for-4, and Luis Lara went 0-for-3. When a team finishes with six hits, nine runners left on base and two runners caught stealing, every empty turn starts to matter.

Our take: a one-run game that still drew clear lessons

Our take: Cincinnati will gladly take the win, but there was room for a cleaner offensive day. Eight hits and three walks should feel larger than four runs, and 13 runners left aboard says the Reds still made this harder than necessary. The encouraging part is that their best hitters in this game were the ones driving the comeback: De La Cruz kept the pressure on, Stewart supported him, and Suárez changed the scoreboard in one stroke. If Cincinnati wants more comfortable wins from similar box scores, the next step is not mystery work; it is simply turning more of that traffic into runs.

Our take: Milwaukee’s improvement case is just as visible. The Brewers drew three walks from Burns in only three innings and still came away with just two early runs, then later erased another chance by getting caught stealing twice over the game. That is the sort of math that narrows your margin before the ninth inning arrives. The home-run power from Ortiz and Bauers was real, but a lineup that struck out eight times and produced only six hits could use a few more ordinary winning at-bats between the fireworks. In a 4-3 loss, those missing smaller plays are usually where the difference lives.

Scoring moments

1. 2nd Inning

   Ortiz homered to center (408 feet), Yelich scored.

2. 6th Inning

   Suárez homered to right center (389 feet), De La Cruz scored and Stewart scored.

3. 7th Inning

   Bauers homered to right center (386 feet).

4. 8th Inning

   Stephenson hit sacrifice fly to right, De La Cruz scored.