Reds get lit up by Brewers

The Milwaukee Brewers came into town on a roll – and they proceeded to roll right over the Reds.

The Brewers beat the Reds 12-1 Friday night before a sellout crowd of 40,760 at Great American Ball Park. It was the sixth straight win for Milwaukee. The Brewers have scored 45 runs in the winning streak.

It was worst loss of the season for the Reds.

Box score:Brewers 12, Reds 1

The game was the fifth sellout of the year for the Reds and 108th in the history over GABP. The big crowds haven't helped the Reds. They've lost the last four sellouts at home.

Rookie right-hander Michael Lorenzen had his shortest start of the year. He pitched four innings and allowed three runs on five hits. He walked two and struck out three.

"A lot of hard stuff up in the zone," Reds manager Bryan Price said. "He was facing a team that's swinging the bat well. They didn't miss mistakes. A lot of times when you're a stuff pitcher, a velocity guy, you get away with balls that aren't well located.

"Tonight, they squared them up."

Lorenzen struggled with putting hitters away all night. He needed 90 (56 strikes) to get the 12 outs.

"They're a really good team," Lorenzen said. "They had a couple really good series coming in here. They're hitting the ball really well."

The Reds, meanwhile, got nothing going against right-hander Mike Fiers. They managed three singles off him and did not advance a runner to second until the seventh inning.

The first inning was bad for Lorenzen, but it could have been much worse.

Gerardo Parra led off with his sixth home run of the year. Lorenzen got up 0-2 in the count, threw two borderline pitches, then left one a 96 mph fastball up that Parra hit out to right-center.

Jonathan Lucroy and Ryan Braun followed with back-to-back singles — Braun took third on Lucroy's. Adam Lind got Lucroy in and Braun to third with a 6-3 groundout.

The key play of the inning followed. Carlos Gomez hit a ground ball to third baseman Todd Frazier, who was playing even with the bag. When Braun saw Frazier get ready to throw to first, he broke off the bag. Frazier held up on the throw. As Braun broke back to the bag, Frazier made a diving tag.

Umpire James Hoye called him safe. The Reds asked for review. The call was overturned. So the Brewers went from first and third, one out to runner at first, two outs.

Gomez was caught stealing on a pitch out on the very next pitch.

The Brewers added a run on the first pitch of the second inning. Aramis Ramirez went down and got a 93 mph fastball and hit it out to left-center for his 10th home run of the year. It was Ramirez's third of the year against the Reds and his 18th at Great American. That put him alone in third place among visitors, behind Lance Berkman (23) Albert Pujols (20).

"I definitely could have done better with pitch selection," Lorenzen said. "My arm felt good. Everything felt really good. Sometimes you second guess yourself."

"You throw some pitches with no conviction behind them. Just learn from it. ... The true character comes out when you don't even go five (innings) and given up three (runs), and don't put your team in the best possible position to win."

It was still 3-0 when Lorenzen left, but the bullpen, so good of late, was not Friday night.

"Things got a bit ugly," Price said. "... They kind of took it to our bullpen."

Nate Adcock took over for Lorenzen and gave up a pair of run in the fifth to make it 5-0.

Gomez delivered the TKO blow. He hit his first career grand slam to make it 9-0. It came off Carlos Contreras in the seventh.