Hall, Priester proving to be effective 1-2 punch as Crew ends road trip with win

CINCINNATI -- You see it all the time in the Minor Leagues but not so often in the Majors. It’s the pitching piggyback, and the Brewers rode it to a 9-1 win over the Reds at Great American Ball Park on Wednesday.

The formula was the same as it was five days earlier in Philadelphia: Three scoreless innings from left-handed “opener” DL Hall, followed by the day’s scheduled starter, right-hander Quinn Priester, who was backed by two-run homers from Jackson Chourio and Daz Cameron and a three-run shot from Isaac Collins as the Brewers claimed their 12th consecutive series victory against the Reds.

“It’s kind of been fun, us two taking games and doing our jobs and winning some games,” said Priester, who was awarded a second consecutive victory after holding the Reds to a run-scoring groundout over five innings of bullpen-saving work.

“It’s been cool to do what I came here to do, which is give the bullpen guys a rest. If we’re able to do that, it’s a win.”

Wednesday’s win was the capper to a 5-1 road trip that leads into the longest homestand of Milwaukee’s season -- a tough, 10-game run against the Padres, Braves and Cardinals before the next road trip begins in Chicago against the Cubs. The Brewers are heading into the stretch with a head of steam after nine victories in their last 10 games.

“I think during this run we’ve played more like the Milwaukee Brewers are expected to play, right?” Brewers assistant GM Matt Kleine said. “This is what we’ve seen over the last several years, especially last year. Comebacks, being active on the bases, popping some homers. The only thing we haven’t done this year that we did last year was get into a fight. I’m definitely not encouraging that.

“But yeah, the recent results have been a lot more aligned with where the expectations were going into the year. And frankly, where they still are.”

Those expectations persist through a spate of pitching injuries -- including a left lat strain that sidelined Hall into late May -- that forced the Brewers to dig deep into their organizational depth and, in some cases, to get creative.

With 24-year-old Priester still developing as a Major League starter, the Brewers have generally limited his outings to twice through the opposing order. That made him a prime candidate to pitch behind an opener once Hall and fellow lefty long reliever Aaron Ashby returned from the injured list last month. Besides setting up Priester for success, the piggyback has been a bullpen-saver for the Brewers, who were getting uncomfortable about the pace of appearances for some of their high-leverage arms.

Already, the Hall-Priester duo has helped to ease some of that strain. They covered all nine innings in Philadelphia earlier on the trip and could have done so again on Wednesday, with Priester sitting at 88 pitches through his fifth effective inning of work.

Instead, with an off-day Thursday and a big lead, the Brewers opted to give the ninth to right-hander Nick Mears as he emerges from a reset.

“This is the second time DL has just mowed down guys for the first three innings,” Priester said. “We do things differently, where he’s riding the fastball and spinning into them with the changeup away. Me, I’m sinking [the fastball] and throwing the slider off of that, and certainly have the other weapons with the cutter and the curveball to keep guys honest.

“I think the fact that we’re so different helps us play off each other better. We’ll continue to see how teams adjust to it, if we’re even going to continue to do it.”

Hall and Priester are making their own adjustments along the way.

For Priester, that means the long-term challenge of accepting this role even though he believes in himself as a future frontline starter (backed up by a 2.51 ERA over his last six games), and the immediate challenge of getting hot for his first pitch when he doesn’t know when that time will come. The second part remains a work in progress, evidenced by another walk on Wednesday to the first batter Priester faced in the fourth inning.

For Hall, the adjustment is staying on the attack for three innings, even though he’d love to keep going, and that he’d love to be a Major League starter in the future. Knowing his leash was nearing its end, he “dumped the tank” when the Reds threatened in the third inning, retiring Santiago Espinal and Elly De La Cruz to strand the bases loaded and hand a 1-0 lead to Priester.

“The competitor in you wants to keep going out there,” Hall said. “But as long as we’re getting through the game and I’m taking care of business, that’s all that matters.”