CINCINNATI -- As one player told it, when the Brewers returned to the clubhouse on Sunday after finally feeling what it’s like to lose a baseball game in August even though it was the 17th day of the month, it was Christian Yelich who broke the silence.
“[Forget] it,” he said in the wake of a 10-inning, 3-2 loss to the Reds, using a more colorful synonym. “Let’s come back and do it again tomorrow.”
With that, the music came on. Reggae seemed like the right choice after Milwaukee’s franchise-record run of 14 consecutive victories came to an end at Great American Ball Park, where Brewers catcher William Contreras hit a go-ahead, two-run home run with one out in the ninth inning -- the latest of the many “did that really just happen?” moments during this streak -- only to see Cincinnati rally back to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth and win in the 10th.
The Reds remained the only team in the Majors that has not been swept this season. The Brewers were resigned to try to start a new winning streak on Monday at Wrigley Field.
“It’s a reminder for our guys that every pitch matters and it ain’t over until it’s over,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “We know that because we’ve done it this week. But we’re showing signs of being human.”
Those signs included a bullpen that was “depleted, totally depleted” in the wake of wild wins in the first two games of this series, which led to some unique bullpen choices in the biggest moments of the finale. And that it all started for the Reds with a rare error, the sort of mistake the Brewers are used to coaxing from opponents while building the best record in the Majors and the sport’s longest winning streak this season, not making themselves.
If they were going to lose a game, said Brewers starter Jose Quintana, “I’m really glad we lost a game like that. We never want to lose a game, but if we keep playing that way, we can keep winning games. We’re good. It was a good battle.”
They hope to be closer to full strength in the pitching department for the battles ahead, and they’ll need every arm available with a split doubleheader at Wrigley Field scheduled for Monday afternoon and night. But they were far from full strength on Sunday, when the Reds rallied not against the Brewers’ usual late-inning options, but against a combination of Tobias Myers and Grant Anderson, who were filling in because higher-leverage arms Aaron Ashby, Jared Koenig, Nick Mears, Abner Uribe and Trevor Megill had all worked in each of the first two games of this series, which saw the Brewers bullpen cover 7 2/3 innings on Friday and 5 2/3 innings on Saturday.
On top of that, the Brewers resolved to stay away from Trade Deadline pick-up Shelby Miller, who pitched Saturday night and is still working back from the forearm injury that sidelined him for most of July and the start of August.
The pitching decisions weren’t the only way in which Sunday’s game was different from the 14 which had preceded it. After Contreras homered off Emilio Pagán to deal the Reds' closer his second blown save in less than 24 hours, Cincinnati had help in the ninth when Brice Turang, after shifting from second base to short an inning earlier, committed a rare error to start the tying rally on a spinner off the bat of Will Benson.
“Funky,” is how Turang described the spin on that ball. Murphy, admitting his bias on the matter, said it shouldn’t even be characterized as an error.
Either way, the Reds were in business for the first time against Myers, who has gone up and down between the Majors and Minors this season, and back and forth between the starting rotation and bullpen. He was in the midst of an inspired effort to that point, because when he followed the error by inducing a flyout, he’d recorded six outs in relief of Quintana on only 24 pitches.
Murphy wanted a ground ball, however. The consensus in the dugout was that a call for Anderson was the prudent move.
The move didn’t work this time. Turang’s error led to an unearned run on a single from Jose Trevino and extended the game for Austin Hays’ winning single off Anderson in the 10th.
“Hindsight is 20/20,” Murphy said. “As thin as we were, to make that game close and to fight back, I’m really proud of them. That was a big, huge hit by Contreras at a clutch time. That’s huge. That says a lot about him and what he’s capable of.
“It’s just unfortunate. It was a lot to ask of Grant and Tobias, but I’m just proud of everybody today.”
Even with Sunday’s loss, the Brewers headed into Chicago with victories in 29 of their past 34 games.
“The union we have around the clubhouse, everybody supports each other,” said Quintana, who matched Reds lefty Andrew Abbott into the seventh inning on a day the Brewers badly needed that length. “It’s been amazing. We’re going to keep playing day by day the same way we’ve been doing. It’s been a really good stretch.
“It’s amazing when you’re a part of the history of the organization and you break the record winning streak. It’s been amazing. We want more. We’re going to stay hungry.”