The late-season collapse of the Milwaukee Brewers is nearly complete.
A 3-1 loss to the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ballpark on Tuesday left the Brewers on the brink of officially being eliminated from the postseason. It is now not a question as to if Milwaukee will miss the postseason, but when the math makes it official. If the San Francisco Giants beat the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night, the Brewers will be eliminated.
The Brewers will become just the fifth team in the divisional era to miss the postseason after spending at least 150 days in first place, joining the 1969 Chicago Cubs, the 2007 New York Mets, the 2008 Arizona Diamondbacks and the 2009 Detroit Tigers.
"We've been trying to get this thing done and win some games, but every night it just seems to be the same thing," Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said. "We'll wait and see what happens."
Even if the Dodgers beat the Giants on Tuesday night, the Brewers would have to win their remaining five games and have San Francisco lose out to force a tie. The Brewers will finish in third place of the National League Central after leading the division for nearly five months.
Tuesday's loss to the Reds followed a similar script to many of Milwaukee's recent defeats. The offense simply isn't scoring runs, as the Brewers were held to just one tally by Cincinnati ace Johnny Cueto, who is destined to finish in the top 3 of the National League Cy Young voting.
The Brewers have scored two runs or fewer in their last six games and are averaging 1.3 runs per game on their current swing to St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. Milwaukee's pitching staff has allowed just 15 runs in seven games on the road trip, but the Brewers are 2-5.
Cueto lowered his ERA to 2.29, surrendering just a solo home run to Carlos Gomez over eight innings.
"Tonight you know you are facing Cueto," Roenicke said. "You know you are going to have a tough time scoring. But when we get the opportunities, it would be nice if we could do something and see what would happen."
Milwaukee had a chance to jump on the board in the first inning but made two outs on the bases. After leading off the game with a single, Gomez was picked off first base. The first inning ended with Scooter Gennett getting thrown out at the plate by Billy Hamilton on a two-out single by Aramis Ramirez.
Brewers starter Mike Fiers allowed back-to-back solo homers to Todd Frazier and Devin Mesoraco in the bottom of the first to put Cincinnati up 2-0.
Fiers settled in to allow just two additional hits through five innings. His night ended when Roenicke pinch-hit for the right-hander with Elian Hererra in the top of the sixth with the Brewers trailing 2-1.
"Just figuring we had to score," Roenicke said. "He had one inning left. Is it worth him staying out there for one more inning or do we need to try to pinch-hit? That's the balance you have. I don't want to take him out, but we had to hit with only one inning left."
A fielding error by Reds shortstop Zack Cozart and a single from Ramirez gave the Brewers two on with nobody out in the seventh, but Ryan Braun hit into a double play and Gerardo Parra fouled out to kill the threat.
Down 3-1 in the ninth, the Brewers had the tying runs on base against Reds closer Aroldis Chapman. The All-Star responded by striking out Ramirez and Braun to end the game.
"Every game it seems like one run is big," Roenicke said. "You make mistakes on them and you end up losing the game on them and you look back at the mistakes."
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