May shows promise, but lengthy rain delay looms large for Crew

CINCINNATI -- Brewers manager Pat Murphy was looking for better execution from right-hander Dustin May on Saturday night, and for the better part of three innings, he got just that. Unfortunately, May’s outing was cut short by a lengthy rain delay as the Brewers lost to the Reds, 5-3, at Great American Ball Park.

May allowed two runs on five hits with zero walks and five strikeouts over 3 2/3 innings on 56 pitches (41 strikes). One of the runs came on a solo homer by Elly De La Cruz in the first inning. May retired nine straight batters in one stretch before the storms arrived.

“I thought, 'This is the Dustin May that could help us here,'” Murphy said. “Just really disappointed that it seemed like things kind of piled against us [with the weather].”

The game was delayed two hours and 22 minutes by rain beginning in the fourth inning. The game was set to restart about an hour into the delay, however, another storm developed, prompting the umpires to have the tarp brought back out. A second heavy downpour delayed the game for another hour or so.

May said it was decided he wasn’t going back out prior to the extension of the delay being announced.

“We didn’t even see another swell coming,” May said. “So props to the grounds crew for noticing it and getting [the tarp] back on just in time. I think it was about five minutes before they came and announced the new game time is when they told me I was done.”

Trailing by two in the ninth, the Brewers loaded the bases with one out against Reds closer Emilio Pagán. Luis Lara popped out and William Contreras flew to center for the final out.

“We always do continue to fight,” Murphy said. “We’ve been in that position a couple of times. We had a young player, you know, pop out. William gave a great at-bat had a long fly ball. [Long] rain delays, sometimes that’s a little tougher on the traveling team.”​

The Brewers (88-55) now lead the Chicago Cubs (81-62) by seven games in the NL Central.

Milwaukee needs to win 10 of its final 19 games to set a new single-season franchise record for wins.

After scoring 10 runs Friday night without a home run, the Brewers, who rank last in the Major Leagues in homers, started the scoring with a long ball when Contreras clubbed his 14th off lefty Andrew Abbott to put them ahead 1-0 in the first.

Contreras’ next home run will be the 100th of his big league career.

May retired the first two batters he faced before leaving a 97 mph fastball over the inner half of the plate on an 0-2 count to De La Cruz, who launched his 22nd home run of the season to tie the score at 1-1.

Following Sal Stewart’s first-inning single, May retired nine straight, including three straight K's.

“The stuff was definitely more interesting tonight,” said May, who was acquired from the Cardinals just prior to the Trade Deadline. “This is definitely the best I’ve felt since coming over. Stuff out of the hand felt good. Breaking ball is actually kind of where I wanted it to be.”

The Reds had runners on first and third with two outs in the fourth when the rain started. May was replaced by DL Hall following the delay. Hall allowed a game-tying single by Jose Trevino.

JoJo Romero allowed a go-ahead solo homer by Tyler Stephenson leading off the sixth.

The Brewers loaded the bases with one out in the seventh and Jackson Chourio’s sacrifice fly tied the score, 3-3.

The Reds regained the lead when Matt McLain led off the bottom half of the seventh with a solo homer off Aaron Ashby (13-3), who took the loss.

Jake Bauers, Brice Turang and Christian Yelich were not in the starting lineup Saturday with the Brewers in the midst of a 16-game stretch without an off-day.

Turang pinch-hit in the seventh and struck out, then remained in the game at second base. Yelich struck out and Bauers walked as pinch-hitters in the ninth.

Milwaukee used four relievers for the second straight night. Grant Anderson’s wild pitch allowed Eugenio Suárez to score from second to extend the Reds’ lead to 5-3.

“It’s been 16 games in a row and you’re working in a six-man rotation,” Murphy said. “You’re going to run into this and how many four-inning starts we’ve had. It’s been difficult, but credit to our team that we’ve kept our head above water.”