The Reds were sitting pretty with less than three innings to play on Sunday, firmly grasping a 5-1 lead against a Brewers offense that had done essentially nothing through six innings against starter Bronson Arroyo.
Then the wheels fell off.
Late walks turned into late Milwaukee runs, and Carlos Gomez took the air out of the Reds’ dugout with a game-saving catch that elicited déjà vu for the visitors before Sean Halton sent them packing with a walk-off solo home run and a knot in their stomachs.
The result was a 6-5 Reds loss, their fourth in the last six games against the Cubs and Brewers — each battling to stay out of the National League Central-division cellar, while the Reds are lobbying for a playoff position.
“That’s probably as crushing of a defeat as we’ve had all year,” Arroyo said.
The Reds were in position to keep pace in the NL Central, but instead, Cincinnati is now 3 1/2 games behind the Pirates and the Cardinals, who both won on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Nationals closed to within 4 1/2 games of the Reds for the second NL Wild Card spot.
“Boy, that really hurts big time,” Reds manager Dusty Baker said. “You’ve got to feel the sting today and get over it tomorrow because we’ve got another series tomorrow. This does hurt. It really hurts.”
The Reds start a three-game series with the Astros on Monday before a pivotal three-game weekend set with the Pirates to conclude Cincinnati’s final road trip of the season.
But they were just happy to escape Miller Park on Sunday.
After taking five of the season’s first six meetings against the Brewers, the Reds dropped eight of the final 13 to their NL Central rivals, including six of 10 in Milwaukee.
On Aug. 16, the Reds lost a game at Miller Park when Jonathan Lucroy launched a two-run walk-off home run against closer Aroldis Chapman. On July 9, Cincinnati came up just short when Gomez leaped to take away what would have been a go-ahead home run from Joey Votto for the final out.
Gomez was at it again on Sunday.
After the Brewers tied the game at 5 with three runs in the eighth inning, Jay Bruce sent a ninth-inning Jim Henderson pitch over Gomez’s head in center field that looked like it might have carried over the center-field wall for a three-run home run. But Gomez had other plans as he jumped high to grab the ball before crashing into the wall, much like he did more than two months ago to Votto.
It was not clear if the ball would have carried over the wall had it eluded Gomez, but if it was on its way over, it would be the fifth robbed home run for Gomez this year.
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