Brewers officially eliminated from playoff contention with loss to Reds
A miracle run to help the Milwaukee Brewers avoid an historic late-season collapse isn't going to happen.
The Brewers were officially eliminated from postseason contention with a 5-3 loss to the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ballpark on Thursday afternoon. Fitting after how the past six weeks have gone, Milwaukee's sloppy play in its final road game of the season led directly to its demise.
A pair of errors in the fifth inning allowed the Reds to take the lead for good, ensuring the Brewers would miss the postseason for the third consecutive season.
"I liked yesterday's game," Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said. "Coming out of that, I thought we were going to play well today. We were sloppy again."
According to STATS Inc., the Brewers are the fifth team in the divisional era (since 1969) to miss the postseason completely after leading their division for at least 150 days, joining the 1969 Chicago Cubs, 2007 New York Mets, '08 Arizona Diamondbacks and '09 Detroit Tigers.
Milwaukee's elimination seemed inevitable since it dropped a series to the Pirates last weekend, but the Brewers held onto a sliver of hope entering Thursday. They needed to win their remaining four games, while the San Francisco Giants had to lose their final four.
Shaky defense and the inability to get a clutch hit -- two of the main factors in Milwaukee's late-season collapse -- cost the Brewers in the series finale against the Reds.
Leading 2-1 in the fifth inning, Yovani Gallardo appeared to get Todd Frazier to hit into a double play, but first baseman Jason Rogers -- making his first big-league start -- dropped Rickie Weeks' return throw.
Jay Bruce made the error hurt by doubling to right to give the Reds runners at second and third with just one out. Things got uglier for the Brewers when Weeks dropped a routine popup off the bat of Ryan Ludwick, allowing Frazier to score and tie the game.
Yorman Rodriguez followed with a base hit to right to score Bruce and give the Reds a 3-2 lead. Cincinnati padded its lead on a Brandon Phillips two-run home run in the sixth inning.
Gallardo allowed five runs (three earned) on 10 hits over five innings in his final start of the season. The right-hander finished with a losing record (8-11) for the first time in his career but also posted a career-best ERA of 3.51.
The Brewers are expected to exercise a $13 million option for 2015 on Gallardo, something the club doesn't have to do until after the World Series.
"Yovani struggled today, but really after the fifth inning it should have been 1-0," Roenicke said. "He did his job with the stuff he had today. He did the job of getting out of it every inning and making some pitches."
Gallardo's pitch count rose quickly Thursday, with shaky command and defensive miscues that caused him to need extra outs the culprits. The Brewers have committed 26 errors since Aug. 26, the fourth-most in baseball during that time period.
"It was a factor in some of the games, but everything was a factor," Roenicke said of the defense. "We didn't swing the bat well during that time. There were some games that we didn't pitch well. It added on with what we were doing."
Trailing 5-2 at the time, the Brewers loaded the bases with nobody out in the seventh. The rally fizzled out when pinch-hitter Scooter Gennett grounded into a double play that scored a run. Carlos Gomez drew a walk to put runners at the corners with two outs, but Ryan Braun grounded out to third to end the inning.
"We had one really good chance there with the bases loaded and there were no outs," Roenicke said. "You hope that you come away with at least two runs, and we didn't. We had chances."
Garza scratched: With Milwaukee officially out of the wild-card race, the Brewers announced that right-hander Matt Garza will not start Friday against the Chicago Cubs due to right-shoulder stiffness.
Signed to a four-year, $50 million contract this past winter, Garza went 8-8 with a 3.64 ERA over 27 starts in his first season with the Brewers. He was sidelined by an oblique injury from Aug. 3 to Sept. 3 but returned to make four starts down the stretch.
Rookie right-hander Jimmy Nelson, Milwaukee's minor-league pitcher of the year, will get the ball in Garza's place.
In 11 big-league starts this season, Nelson is 2-7 with a 4.38 ERA. The emergence of Mike Fiers pushed Nelson to the bullpen when Garza returned from the disabled list. Nelson allowed two earned runs over 1 1/3 innings in two relief appearances.
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