MILWAUKEE — After they departed Los Angeles late Wednesday, a mechanical issue with their airplane forced the Reds to divert to Las Vegas and spend the night. They spent most of Thursday’s off-day there before finally getting to Milwaukee late in the evening.
Not a bad place to be for an unscheduled extended stopover, at least.
“Can you imagine if we landed in like Pocatello, Idaho?” manager Terry Francona joked Friday afternoon.
The Reds might have enjoyed some time in Pocatello more than Friday night’s series opener against the Brewers, which ended with a lopsided 20-0 loss at American Family Field.
“It’s not a lot of fun to be a part of that,” Francona said after the game.
Including Wednesday’s blowout defeat to the Dodgers, the Reds (69-78) have been outscored 34-1 over their past two games.
Did the travel trouble contribute at all to the poor performance on Friday?
“You know what? If it did, it’s our fault,” Francona said. “I was tired today. I’m sure guys were dragging a little bit, but it happens. That’s just part of it. I thought our guys handled it really well. Nobody [complained].”
All the Brewers needed to clinch a postseason berth was a win, and they wasted little time to secure it by roughing up starting pitcher Andrew Abbott while taking an 8-0 lead after two innings.
“I’m not one for excuses,” Abbott said. “I slept plenty. I got plenty of rest. I recovered. That stuff is going to happen. There’s no excuse for that.”
Once the rout was on, the only drama remaining for Cincinnati was whether Elly De La Cruz would hit a home run for a sixth consecutive game, which would have been one shy of tying the club record.
Alas, De La Cruz came up empty while going 0-for-3 with a walk, keeping Joey Votto’s 2021 record safe. The Reds were held to two hits overall. Both were singles by Sal Stewart.
Meanwhile, Abbott was clobbered for a career-high eight runs while tying a career high with nine hits allowed. All coming over a career-low two innings while throwing 43 pitches.
Milwaukee put Abbott on the backfoot right away when Jackson Chourio led off with a double to left field and Brice Turang bunted to the right side for a single. A William Contreras sacrifice fly and an Andrew Vaughn RBI double scored the first two runs.
With one out in the second inning, Chourio’s RBI ground-rule double to right-center field and a Turang two-run homer to right-center field made it a six-run game. A two-out, two-run homer to center field by Jake Bauers put Cincinnati’s deficit at eight runs.
“I didn’t do anything right,” Abbott said. “The only thing I did right was throw strikes, but I was in the zone too much. That’s a good team on that side. Not taking anything away from them and the at-bats they put together, but I didn’t execute. I didn’t throw well, didn’t throw offspeed pitches in the zone, gave up too many hard hits, gave up too much hard contact in general.
“I let the team down by getting yanked [after] the second after such a bad start. It didn’t feel good.”
Over his past eight starts, Abbott is 1-5 with a 7.96 ERA. After he made 29 starts last season and 25 in 2024, the lefty reached an important threshold with his 30th start. But he is 6-11 with a 4.84 ERA over 154 1/3 innings after he was an All-Star in 2025.
The pummeling in Milwaukee didn’t end with Abbott’s departure. In the fifth inning, reliever Luis Mey was tagged for eight runs and eight hits, including Garrett Mitchell’s grand slam. Cincinnati’s pitchers set season highs in runs and hits (23) allowed.
“They just kept coming,” Francona said.
For the second game in a row, the Reds had to turn to backup catcher Jose Trevino to finish the game on the mound. Trevino, who has seven appearances as a pitcher this season — two more than starter Hunter Greene — worked the final two innings.
“The good part is that Trevy gave us two,” Francona said. “You try never to make a mockery of the game because people paid money to come. But you get to the point where you don’t want it to affect tomorrow or have to send somebody down that doesn’t deserve it or something like that. Fortunately we got through that. That’s the only bright spot, I would say.”