Rookie Cooper Pratt ripped a bases-clearing triple and scored on a wild pitch during the fifth inning, lifting the visiting Milwaukee Brewers to a 10-7 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Friday.
Milwaukee’s Brice Turang had a two-run double among his three hits, drove in a run after being hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and also scored on a groundout.
David Hamilton had an RBI triple and William Contreras added a run-scoring double for the Brewers (88-54), who own the majors’ best record and have won seven of their last 10 games.
Cincinnati’s Eugenio Suarez belted a three-run homer in his return from a two-game absence in order to take the U.S. naturalization test.
With his new walk-up song being Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless The USA,” the Venezuela-born Suarez deposited a 2-2 fastball from Shane Drohan over the wall in center field. The homer, which staked Cincinnati (67-74) to a 6-4 lead in the third, was the 21st of the season for Suarez and his third in six games.
Milwaukee responded with a flourish by loading the bases against Rhett Lowder (6-9), who was relieved by Sam Moll. Turang was hit by a pitch, and Pratt followed with a bases-clearing triple down the right field line before scoring on a wild pitch to give the Brewers a 9-6 lead.
Chad Patrick (8-4) relieved Drohan and allowed one hit over two scoreless innings. Drohan gave up six runs on five hits over four innings.
Rookie Sal Stewart had an RBI single in the seventh to cut Milwaukee’s lead to 10-7. Aaron Ashby fanned two in the eighth for the Brewers and Trevor Megill struck out the side in the ninth to secure his 26th save of the season.
Lowder permitted seven runs (six earned) on six hits in four innings.
Elly De La Cruz’s RBI single to left field opened the scoring in the first before Milwaukee scratched for a pair of runs in the second, highlighted by Hamilton’s RBI triple down the right field line.
Matt McLain sent a 1-2 fastball from Drohan over the wall in left-center to give Cincinnati a 3-2 lead in the second. However, Turang’s two-run double regained the lead for the Brewers in the third.
