MILWAUKEE – As if Cincinnati Reds manager Terry Francona wasn’t sick enough before Friday’s 3-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.
While he and a handful of other Reds personnel tried to recuperate at the team hotel Friday night after a flu-like bug spread through the clubhouse, the Reds’ ailing bats spent another 7-plus innings awaiting life support at the Brewers’ ballpark.
They tied a major-league record Thursday with a third consecutive 1-0 loss, and by the end of the sixth inning Friday they were holding their own beer – no-hit by Brewers starter Tyler Alexander and reliever Abner Uribe until Gavin Lux’s two-out single to center in the seventh.
By the end of the seventh, they had tied the fourth-longest scoreless-innings drought in franchise history with 35, the longest since a 37-inning skid in 1946.
Their march toward the 1931 franchise record of 45 innings ended when Christian Encarnacion-Strand delivered a sacrifice fly to center with one-out in the eighth, and then Jeimer Candelario followed with a run-scoring double to right.
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Neither run was earned, thanks to an Oliver Dunn error on Spencer Steer’s hopper to third after TJ Friedl had led off the inning with a single.
It wasn’t enough to avoid another one-run loss. But it was, perhaps, a start?
And enough to avoid what would have been an MLB-record-tying fourth consecutive shutout for the lineup (a record held by many, last “accomplished” by the 2017 Kansas City Royals).
Maybe it leads to more the final two games of this four-game series? Maybe if their top-performing early season hitter, Matt McLain, returns Saturday from the hamstring tightness that sidelined him until a ninth-inning pinch-hit appearance Friday?
After all, it’s easy to forget that way back in, uh, a few days ago, this same Brewers pitching staff gave up 20, 12 and 11 runs on consecutive days to two different teams (Saturday through Monday).
It was the Reds’ fifth loss to the Brewers in their past six meetings and ninth of 11.
For those scoring at home, here are the longest consecutive scoreless-innings droughts in Reds history:
- 45 — 1931
- 43 — 1908
- 37 — 1946
- 35 — 2025*
- 35 — 1915
*-From Monday’s eighth through Friday’s seventh inning.
