1 bright spot from Wednesday night's shellacking at the hands of the Brewers

David Bell's crew took it on the chin again on Wednesday night. The Milwaukee Brewers flat-out embarrassed the Cincinnati Reds by giving them an ole fashioned butt-whippin'. The Reds lost by a final score of 18-4.

The Reds actually led last night's game for a grand total of about 20 pitches. Vladimir Gutierrez, for the umpteenth time this season, proved that he's no longer qualified to be a starting pitcher in the big leagues.

Were it not for the injuries to Mike Minor and Luis Castillo, you'd have to imagine that Gutierrez would already be on a plane to Triple-A Louisville. With Castillo likely to return on Monday, that may be the right-hander's fate anyway.

But as bad as Gutierrez's performance may have been, the bullpen was even worse. The Reds relief corps allowed nine hits, surrendered 11 earned runs, walked seven batters, and struck out only four.

Mike Moustakas was the lone bright spot for the Reds.

While last night's performance was an outright joke on the part of the Cincinnati Reds, I'd be remiss if I didn't speak to the fact that one hour before the game both Tyler Naquin and Nick Senzel were placed on the IL without designation.

That caused a ripple-effect in the starting lineup which left only Tyler Stephenson on the Reds bench and the outfield duo of Albert Almora and Ronnie Dawson commuting to the stadium prior to the first pitch.

But lost in the all the hoopla of the Reds 18-4 loss was the play of Mike Moustakas. The veteran third baseman has been coming on strong of late, and Cincinnati needs the type of production and leadership that Moose can provide.

Moustakas was the only Reds player to record more than one hit on the evening, as the 33-year-old went 2-for-4 against his former team with an RBI. Moustakas is hitting .235/.259/.314 on the season, but over the last seven games, Moose has slashed .348/.400/.522.

When the Cincinnati Reds are fully healthy, whenever that may be, having a productive Mike Moustakas anchoring the lineup will be a shot in the arm. The Reds need Moose to be the player who signed the biggest free agent contract in franchise history.