MILWAUKEE – Milwaukee Brewers closer Josh Hader is one of the best closers in baseball. He rarely allows a hit, let alone a run.
But if there’s any team that has shown their offense is well positioned to score against Hader, it’s the Cincinnati Reds.
For the second straight game, the Reds scored a game-winning run on Hader in the top of the ninth inning. On Sunday, the Reds beat the Brewers, 3-1, and won the series, taking three of four games, against their division rival.
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“Our players are stepping up in every way,” Reds manager David Bell said. “Guys (are) having fun, enjoying themselves, believing in themselves and having confidence that we can do it. It’s been a pleasure just being around these guys and watching them go about it this way. You couldn’t ask for any more.”
Reds right fielder Nick Castellanos, an early MVP candidate, hit the go-ahead single in the ninth off Hader to give the Reds the lead. Hader had only allowed three runs all season before this series, but Castellanos was the second Reds player to drive in a go-ahead run against Hader over the last two days.
“Against Josh Hader, of course we want (Castellanos) up at the plate right there,” Bell said. “He wants to be at the plate which is the most important thing.”
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With the win, the Reds pulled to within four games of the first-place Brewers at the All-Star break. Since June 1, the Reds are 24-14 and put themselves in a good position approaching the trade deadline.
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Entering the game, the Reds led the National League in come from behind wins, and had scored the most runs in the league after the sixth inning. One day after third baseman Eugenio Suárez led the Reds to a win on Saturday with his ninth inning homer, Castellanos provided another magical late game moment to lead the Reds to a win.
“When you have a hot hitter like Castellanos right now, anything can happen,” starter Luis Castillo said according to interpreter Jorge Merlos. “I was thinking at that time anything can happen, especially after last night when we took the game away from the Brewers. I said, ‘We’re going to take it away again today.’ Just glad he was there.”
The Reds bullpen did the rest.
It was fitting that all four games of the biggest series of the first half of the Reds season came down to how both teams’ bullpens performed.
For the Reds, a struggling bullpen defined their sub .500 baseball over the first two months of the season. Then their resurgent bullpen helped get the Reds back into the playoff mix in July and secured three wins in the series in Milwaukee.
For a few weeks, the Reds had the highest bullpen ERA in MLB. But on Sunday, the Reds bullpen came through again against the Brewers. Over the last 30 games, the Reds bullpen has the fourth-lowest ERA in MLB at 3.17.
“It started before the game, there was some clown on the television talking (stuff) about our bullpen,” Castellanos said in his postgame interview on Bally Sports Ohio. “Karma is real in this game. Whoever that is, it’s a good lesson right there.”
Castillo allowed just three hits in 5 1/3 innings, but he left a runner on second when he was pulled from the game. The Reds led 1-0 at the time, but reliever Amir Garrett allowed a game-tying single in the sixth.
After that, even though the bullpen was far from fully rested, it didn’t allow a run.
“It’s really fun,” Castillo said of the bullpen. “It’s good to see they’re doing their job out there. I hope they continue on with this run.“
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Entering Sunday’s game, three of the top four relievers in the Reds bullpen had thrown a significant amount of innings recently. Brad Brach had pitched in six of the Reds last 10 games. Heath Hembree had pitched in four of the last five. Josh Osich had gone in three of the last four.
Lucas Sims and Tejay Antone, who would have been called on if they were healthy, were still on the injured list.
Amir Garrett allowed just one hit, continuing his most impressive stretch of the season. Reliever Art Warren entered the game for the seventh inning, but he left after two batters due to an apparent injury. That meant left-hander Sean Doolittle, who hadn’t pitched in nearly a week, entered the game to face the middle of the Brewers order.
Doolittle got former NL MVP Christian Yelich to ground out, and Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson threw out Brewers shortstop Willy Adames at second on a steal attempt to end the seventh.
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Doolittle and rookie Ryan Hendrix combined for a scoreless eighth, and Hendrix struck out two hitters to end the inning. Even though Doolittle and Hendrix hadn’t pitched in many high-leverage situations this season, they delivered with two of their best performances of the year.
The bullpen bought the Reds offense time, as Cincinnati didn’t score between the second and the eighth innings. Castellanos gave the Reds the lead, and Osich pitched the ninth and picked up his first career save in his 246th career game.
“The team feels really good right now,” Castillo said. “We’re on a positive mindset, we’re hyping each other up and we’re thinking positively right now. We’re so excited that we finished like this and took the series from Milwaukee.”
