MILWAUKEE -- The Brewers had spent the better part of the past week finding just about every way to win.
On Sunday, they finally ran out of answers.
Milwaukee first grabbed the lead then fought its way back into the game, but the Reds had the final response in the Brewers’ 4-3 loss at American Family Field, snapping Milwaukee’s five-game winning streak and denying it a perfect 6-0 homestand as it continues to close in on another NL Central title.
Jake Bauers provided Milwaukee’s biggest answer, leading off the seventh inning with a game-tying solo homer into the Brewers’ bullpen in right field. The blast erased a one-run deficit after Cincinnati had turned the game around an inning earlier against Robert Gasser and Antonio Senzatela.
But the tie lasted only until the eighth. Elly De La Cruz and Sal Stewart opened the inning with consecutive singles against Abner Uribe, and De La Cruz eventually scored the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly. Milwaukee mounted threats from there but couldn’t push across another run.
For much of the afternoon, the Brewers appeared positioned to continue rolling. Christian Yelich drew a one-out walk in the second inning before Joey Ortiz immediately followed with a two-run homer to center, giving Milwaukee an early 2-0 advantage.
Gasser protected it until the sixth, when he allowed a leadoff single and was lifted for Senzatela. The right-hander surrendered a double before Eugenio Suárez flipped the game with a three-run homer, turning Milwaukee’s two-run advantage into a 3-2 deficit. Senzatela recorded only one out while allowing two runs on two hits.
The loss did little to erase what Milwaukee accomplished on the homestand. The Brewers swept the Cubs, clinched their eighth postseason berth in nine seasons Friday and scored a franchise-record 33 runs over Friday and Saturday before falling one run short of completing a perfect week at home.