With depleted 'pen, Crew cobbles together clutch sweep of rival Reds

CINCINNATI -- The Brewers didn’t have a hit with runners in scoring position until their 26th inning at-bat in this series, and they had to navigate the finale with a perilously thin bullpen behind a starter who needed 98 pitches for 13 outs.

In other words, you can put Wednesday’s 6-5 triumph over the Reds at Great American Ball Park firmly into the “good win” category -- even if it wasn’t pretty.

William Contreras and Jake Bauers combined to hit the Brewers’ first back-to-back home runs this season in the third inning, and Andrew Vaughn finally broke through in the clutch with a pinch-hit, three-run double in the seventh before Milwaukee’s four available relievers held on for dear life to finish a three-game sweep of the rival Reds.

“Gutsy, man,” said rookie starter Shane Drohan. “It could have been a lot different if I did what I was supposed to do and go deeper into the game. Credit to the ‘pen for picking me up. Thank God we have an off-day tomorrow.”

A five-run Brewers lead at the seventh-inning stretch shrank to four runs by the middle of the eighth, and was down to one run in the ninth as fill-in closer Joel Kuhnel faced a bases-loaded, one-out threat with a pitch count creeping to 30. But on his 31st pitch, he induced a Dane Myers double play, and the Brewers emerged a season-high 20 games over .500.

It was harrowing stuff, and there is surely more like this to come. After an off-day on Thursday, the Brewers host the Cubs to begin a stretch of 18 games over 17 days leading to the All-Star break, and teams don’t get through a gauntlet like that with a full complement of relievers every night.

“That’s why I say the 12th and 13th reliever have to be dependable,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said, “because they’re going to pitch in leverage sometimes, like what happened tonight.”

Kuhnel, though, got the job done despite yielding a leadoff single in the ninth followed by the final two of Milwaukee pitchers’ 11 walks, which tied a dubious season high. When he walked Reds star Elly De La Cruz on seven pitches to load the bases, there was nowhere to put Myers.

“I just let everything go,” Kuhnel said.

What did he think when rookie shortstop Cooper Pratt briefly bobbled the game-ending grounder?

“My heart kind of sank a little bit when I watched it,” Kuhnel said. “But they turned it, got the two outs. I think that’s the first time in my career I let out a nice little scream.”

Everybody in a Brewers uniform felt that way. Before Vaughn’s double, Milwaukee was 0-for-19 with runners in scoring position in the series, yet was nine outs from completing a sweep thanks to its stellar pitching in the first two games of this series and the Reds’ own trouble coming through in the clutch. Combined, the teams were 0-for-29 with runners in scoring position until Cincinnati’s Blake Dunn knocked an RBI double off Chad Patrick with two outs in the sixth to cut Milwaukee’s lead to 3-1.

It was 6-1 after Vaughn’s bases-clearing double in the seventh, and the Brewers needed every run to get through a game with set-up man Abner Uribe serving a one-game suspension and their top two active relievers, closer Trevor Megill and left-hander Aaron Ashby, having pitched three of the past four days, including each of the first two games of this series. Both were off limits, Murphy said later. Lefty starter Robert Gasser, who just started Sunday in Atlanta, was in the bullpen for emergency use only.

So it was less than ideal when Drohan saw his pitch count soar to 75 pitches through the first three innings and to a career-high 98 by the time he got the first out of the fifth. But he kept the Reds off the scoreboard long enough for the Brewers to cobble together the rest of the night with Patrick for five outs, Grant Anderson for two in an ineffective outing, Craig Yoho for three outs (and three runs) and Kuhnel, the 31-year-old acquired in a cash deal with the A’s earlier this month and the closer for the night, for the final four outs after Yoho required an eighth-inning bailout.

The Brewers should be much better equipped for Friday’s showdown with the Cubs, with Megill, Uribe and Ashby all available again, and left-handed veteran Jared Koenig expected back from the injured list. Yoho was packing up late Wednesday, and it appears he will be the corresponding move.

“Kuhnel and Contreras need to be commended for the toughness they showed, and the commitment,” Murphy said. “When you don’t have your leverage [relievers], you’re susceptible, and [the Reds] are home and they have some momentum going. Usually, that game goes the other way, especially with bases loaded and one out.

“It comes down to one pitch.”

Kuhnel made it count.

“I think that’s the most excited I’ve been after a game,” Kuhnel said. “It takes me a little bit to get my heart rate down.”