Cincinnati Reds Fall to Brewers in Lorenzen’s Debut

76. 3. 61. . 8

W: Matt Garza (2-3)

L: Michael Lorenzen (0-1)

Great American Ball Park has always been known as a hitter’s park and you saw why today, as the Cincinnati Reds and Milwaukee Brewers combined for seven home runs on the day. It was the Brewers who would get the advantage in homers (4-3) and the scoreboard (8-3), however.

Leading the charge was Brewers’ right fielder Ryan Braun, who hit two home runs on the day, including a grand slam off of Jumbo Diaz in the eighth inning to put the game out of reach.

Michael Lorenzen made his big league debut for the Reds and did about as well as can be expected from someone making their first career start. The right-hander struggled with the long ball, giving up three solo homers. Adam Lind took him deep in the second, Khris Davis went yard two batters later, and Braun hit his first home run of the day in the fifth.

Overall, Lorenzen went five innings, allowing three runs on eight hits with one walk and five strikeouts while also picking up a hit in his first career at-bat.

Offensively, the Reds were powered by three solo homers. Todd Frazier gave the Reds an early 1-0 lead with a home run in the first, Tucker Barnhart hit his second career long ball in the fifth, and Jay Bruce hit one out in garbage time in the ninth inning.

The bullpen yet again deserves a large portion of the blame for a loss, as Diaz was an utter disaster in the eighth inning. Martin Maldonado started the inning off with a single and the next two batters tried to give themselves up via sacrifice bunts, but Diaz wouldn’t let them. He fielded the first bunt, but his throw to second was in the dirt and he was unable to field the second bunt. He then hit Logan Schafer with a pitch while the bases were loaded and then gave up the dagger — a grand slam to Braun.

Other Notes:

The bullpen wasn’t all bad. J.J. Hoover and Tony Cingrani both fired scoreless innings and Carlos Contreras made a case to stick around for a while in the bullpen, as he tossed a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the ninth.
Joey Votto got his first day off of the season (though he did strikeout out as a pinch hitter in the seventh), probably a good idea considering his injury issues the last two seasons. Kristopher Negron started in his place and went 0-for-4.

Up Next: The Reds (10-11) begin their 11-day road trip tomorrow by travelling to Atlanta to face off against the Braves (10-10). Mike Leake (0-1, 3.90 ERA) gets the start and will be opposed by former Cardinal Shelby Miller (3-0, 2.05 ERA). First pitch is set for 7:10 p.m. ET.

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