Bauer bests bud Sonny; nicked for 1st time

If they weren't division rivals playing at Miller Park on Monday, the Reds and Brewers could commiserate with each other over their underwhelming offensive production this season. Reds starting pitcher Trevor Bauer -- along with his 4-0 record, MLB-leading 0.68 ERA and eight hits allowed over 26 1/3 innings entering the day -- certainly had the recipe to make Milwaukee's hitters a lot more miserable.

Losers of their previous four in a row, the Brewers flipped the script as Bauer gave up nearly as many hits -- and double the runs -- as he allowed in all of his previous 2020 starts combined during a 4-2 Reds loss on Monday.

• Box score

"Honestly, I thought Trevor had his best stuff tonight since his first outing of the season," Reds catcher Curt Casali said. "His velocity was up ... It was floating back towards the middle. Those are dangerous spots for any hitter in the big leagues."

Bauer finished with four earned runs and seven hits allowed over 6 1/3 innings. He walked two and struck out eight.

Milwaukee (12-15) -- which had scored first in only six of its 26 games and not in the first inning for the last 11 contests -- came out strong with three first-inning hits against Bauer. Christian Yelich started a rally with a double to left field and scored on Justin Smoak's two-out single. Bauer gave up another double to Ryan Braun, but he escaped.

On Aug. 7, Bauer limited the Brewers to one run with three hits and 12 strikeouts -- also at Miller Park. Similar to that outing, he led with his four-seam fastball on Monday.

“He had his best fastball, maybe all season, which is a great sign," Reds manager David Bell said. "He had some extended rest, and I think that helped him come out tonight with a really, really good fastball."

According to Statcast, Bauer used the four-seamer for 39 of his 109 pitches.

"I started off with the same game plan that I used against them last time because there was no reason to not, and they made an adjustment in the first inning," Bauer said. "They came out hot. I noticed it right away, so we made some adjustments back and forth. I thought I actually threw the ball pretty well. I was happy with my stuff, for sure, but they battled. They put up really good at-bats all night long. You really have to give them credit."

With two outs in the third inning, Bauer hit Keston Hiura with a 1-0 slider. Smoak then slugged a full-count fastball for a two-run homer to right field.

"I was upset about that one, and I was upset about, really, what put me in that situation was two really uncompetitive sliders right before that to Hiura," Bauer said. "The Hiura at-bat is the one I’d want back. I had two outs. I was in a matchup that I feel like is good for me, and I missed bad with two pitches, and that put me in that spot and it ended up costing me two runs and ultimately was probably the deciding factor in the game. So that’s the one I really want back."

Omar Narváez's leadoff homer in the fourth inning made it a 4-0 game.

Losers of four of their last five to drop to a season-high five games under .500 at 11-16, many Reds key hitters haven't clicked. The team remains last in MLB in team batting and batting average on balls in play. A 13-inning scoreless streak ended when Casali led off the top of the sixth with a home run to left field against Brett Anderson. Starting the seventh, Eugenio Suárez -- who grounded into a pair of double plays earlier -- hit his second homer in two games and third over the last six.

On Thursday at St. Louis, Sonny Gray set a new team record when he recorded 45 strikeouts over his first five starts. Bauer saw a club tweet about Gray's strikeouts and posted one of his own that read, "Hold my beer."

That very un-Milwaukee brewery -- Budweiser -- responded by offering to make a special can of "Cincinnati Buds" if Bauer could break the record, too.

Starting the bottom of the third inning, Bauer's strikeout of Avísail Garcia surpassed Gray's total, and he marked the moment by scrawling "B-U-D-S" on the back of the mound next to a Brewers logo and miming a beer chug. He finished the night with eight punchouts, pushing him to 49 on the season.

"If you’re going to do it when you’re pitching well and enjoy it, then when you do it and you lose, you have to kind of wear it," Bauer said of his theater. "Not the ideal outcome for it. I try to make my starts entertaining. I try to give people a reason to tune in. I try to bring attention to the team and what we’re trying to do. Happy to get that. I think it’s going to be a cool thing for the fans. Obviously, it doesn’t matter at all given that we lost. Would much rather have struck out zero and won."