Riding a 14-game win streak, the Milwaukee Brewers came oh-so-close to extending it one further on Sunday. For a moment, it looked as though they were about to pull yet another rabbit out of the hat. Down 1-0 in the ninth, catcher William Contreras hit a two-run shot off Reds closer Emilio Pagan to give Milwaukee a 2-1 lead heading to the bottom of the inning. Two batters in, one on and one out, the Brewers made a pitching change, turning it over to reliever Grant Anderson to try and close it out.
That choice did not work as planned, as Anderson gave up the tying run then and the winning run an inning later. Prepared for the second-guessing, manager Pat Murphy said it came down to a simple strategy based on the circumstances.
Anderson can’t hold 9th-inning lead, gives game away in 10th as Brewers’ streak comes to end
Going to the bottom of the ninth in need of a save, the Brewers faced an unideal scenario. Closer Trevor Megill had pitched in the last two games against the Reds, as had setup man Abner Uribe. On a short turnaround between Saturday night and Sunday’s afternoon game, both were unavailable.
After Jose Quintana gave Milwaukee 6.1 innings and Tobias Myers finished off the seventh and the eighth, it looked as if that might not be a problem.
In fact, Myers would have had the chance to finish out his first-ever save opportunity, Murphy implied, without an error from Brice Turang, which put the leadoff man on. After Myers retired the next hitter, Murphy called in Anderson.
“We brought in Grant to get a ground ball,” Murphy said simply. “That’s what he does.”
Would Myers have stayed in with two outs and the bases empty?
“Yeah, yeah. Nobody’s on base,” confirmed Murphy. “Hindsight’s 20-20” is a phrase he repeated often in his postgame media session. And he’s right. If Anderson shut the door in the ninth, ground-ball double play or not, no one would be talking about the decision to remove Myers.
Instead, Anderson allowed hits to the next two batters, tying the game. Although he made it out of the inning, he could not hold the Reds at bay in the bottom of the 10th after the Brewers failed to push one across in their turn at bat. It was Anderson’s second blown save of the season in two attempts.
Working with an exhausted stash of arms, however, Murphy was impressed with the work his pitchers did.
“Q was great. Tobias was great. You know, we put Grant Anderson in a spot that he hasn’t been in a lot. And quite frankly, Tobias hasn’t been in that situation a lot. But we were depleted, totally depleted, and we needed Q to do what he did. Hindsight’s 20-20. … As thin as we were, for our guys to fight back, I’m really proud of them.”
Now 78-45, the Brewers begin a five-game road series versus the Cubs with a doubleheader on Monday. First pitch in Game 1 is scheduled for 1:20 PM CT.
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