MILWAUKEE -- Stop digging and start scoring.
That is the only way the Reds can climb out of their early-season offensive hole. That first step upward finally happened on Friday.
Although the losing streak still reached four games with a 3-2 defeat to the Brewers, Cincinnati's other painful streak ended. Their two runs in the top of the eighth inning stopped the club's scoreless streak at 35 innings, its longest since Sept. 8-12, 1946, when the Reds didn't score for 37 consecutive innings.
"I feel pretty good about tomorrow now that we got a little bit of that monkey off our back with the scoreless streak," left fielder Gavin Lux said.
It was Lux who broke up Milwaukee's combined bid for a no-hitter with a single lined into center field with two outs in the top of the seventh inning against reliever Abner Uribe.
Christian Encarnacion-Strand's sacrifice fly in the top of the eighth inning gave the Reds their first run since Monday.
Obviously, the streak of 1-0 losses was also stopped at three games. Only six teams had ever done that -- just two of them in the Live Ball Era after 1920 -- and no team has ever done it four times in a row.
More trouble hit the Reds before Friday's game. Manager Terry Francona was among a few members of the club who was sent back to the hotel with an unidentified illness. Bench coach Freddie Benavides served as acting manager. Then, second baseman Matt McLain was a late scratch from the lineup with a tight left hamstring (McLain later came in to pinch-hit in the ninth).
¡°It was tough. A lot of adversity. A lot of guys going down," Benavides said.
For a while, losing another 1-0 game seemed possible after Garrett Mitchell's RBI single to left field against Reds starter Nick Martinez in the second inning.
Milwaukee made it a 3-0 game in the fifth when Brice Turang hit a 3-1 Martinez pitch for a two-run home run to right field.
¡°Mostly I was just battling myself out there tonight. I couldn¡¯t really get into a rhythm, falling behind guys," Martinez said.
For the first time since Sunday, the Reds rotation did not get a quality start as Martinez lasted 4 2/3 innings with three earned runs, five hits and two walks allowed while striking out two.
In a spot start that was expected to go only four innings, Brewers lefty Tyler Alexander instead held the Reds hitless for 5 2/3 innings. Alexander was aware that Cincinnati rode a 28-inning scoreless streak into the night and that it had dropped three-straight 1-0 contests.
¡°I think I saw it on TikTok,¡± Alexander said.
It also factored into the pitcher's approach.
¡°We knew they wanted to score runs, so we were prepared for early bunts, early swings," Alexander said. "For me, all that means is ¡®execute early.¡¯ Which, for the most part, I did.¡±
As the scoreless streak reached 35 innings, TJ Friedl led off the eighth with a sharp single into left field and was followed by Spencer Steer reaching on Oliver Dunn's fielding error. After Elly De La Cruz fouled out to advance the runners to second and third, Encarnacion-Strand lifted a sacrifice fly to the warning track in left-center field to score Friedl.
Jeimer Candelario's ensuing RBI double down the right-field line made it a one-run game. The Reds later had the tying run on first base in the ninth inning but couldn't push any more runs across.
¡°We showed a little life there at the end, had some traffic on the bases from the seventh inning on," Benavides said. "It¡¯s just about making adjustments and they¡¯re working hard. Tito said it the other day: We¡¯re going to figure this out together. I think they¡¯re going to do that.¡±
Even with five hits in the game, the Reds are batting .106 (14-for-122) in their four losses since scoring 14 on the Rangers Monday. They are also 1-for-19 with runners in scoring position. Against the Brewers since 2023, the Reds are 7-21.
Several hitters hit the ball hard without luck. Encarnacion-Strand, who is hitless in his last 17 at-bats, slugged three balls with an exit velocity over 100 mph. In the ninth as a pinch-hitter, McLain looked as if he might put the Reds ahead with a 107.6 mph drive to center field until it was caught at the warning track.
"We kind of got baseball¡¯d there a little bit," Lux said. "It is part of it, man. Hopefully tomorrow we get 10 broken-bat hits and then unluckiness goes to their side.¡±