The Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday night pulverized the Cincinnati Reds by a score of 18-4 at American Family Field (box score). The win lifted the first-place Brewers to 17-8 on the season and allowed them to maintain a 2 1/2-game lead over the Cardinals in the NL Central.Â
As for the Reds, the loss — their eighth in a row — dropped them to 3-21 on the season, which puts them in exceedingly rare historical company:Â
Just one other National League team has lost at least 21 of its first 24, and that was the 1894 Washington Senators. The 2003 Tigers also started the year 3-21. As well, the Reds are 1-19 in their past 20 games. To put a finer point on it, their .125 win percentage puts them on pace to go 20-142 across the full season. While no one expected the Reds to reach these early depths, ownership’s decision to strip the roster for parts makes all this something of a deserved outcome.Â
On the other side of things, Milwaukee first baseman Rowdy Tellez made a bit of franchise history at the expense of Reds pitchers:Â
Indeed, Tellez racked up eight RBI in this one and now stands alone atop the single-game Brewers list for that particular category. On the night, he went 4 for 6 with two homers (he now has seven on the year) and that double you saw above. One of those home runs was a grand slam:Â
Tellez has now homered four times in his past four games. Kolten Wong also homered for the Brewers in this one, and Andrew McCutchen went 4 for 5.Â
With his record-setting night at the ballpark, Tellez on the season is now batting .267/.337/.613. The 27-year-old lefty slugger has been quite productive since the Brewers acquired him from the Blue Jays in July of last year, and he’s never been better than he was on Wednesday night against the Reds.Â
