Field Level Media
Sep 19, 2018
Gio Gonzalez pitched six shutout innings and Jesus Aguilar drove in four runs, three on a third-inning home run, lifting the Milwaukee Brewers to a 7-0 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday night in Milwaukee.
Manny Pina also had a three-run homer for the Brewers (87-66), who moved three games ahead of St. Louis (84-69) in the race for the first wild card in the National League.
Starting for the third time since joining the Brewers in a trade from Washington in August, Gonzalez (9-11) allowed a second-inning single to Phil Ervin and a fourth-inning single to Scooter Gennett in his six innings. He walked two and struck out five.
Gonzalez improved to 2-0 with a 1.65 ERA as a Brewer.
Aguilar gave Gonzalez the only run he would need with an RBI single in the first inning, scoring Christian Yelich, who had doubled.
Aguilar's homer, his 33rd of the season, came in the third after Gonzalez had drawn a walk from Reds starter Matt Harvey (7-9) and Yelich had singled one out later.
The Brewers busted the game open in the sixth on Pina's homer, his ninth of the season. It followed a triple by Domingo Santana and an intentional walk to Mike Moustakas.
Harvey was pulled at that point, charged with seven runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings. He walked two and struck out five.
Brewers relievers Corey Knebel, Junior Guerra and Freddy Peralta followed Gonzalez with one hitless inning apiece, completing the two-hitter.
The shutout was the Brewers' 13th of the season. They've held 11 of their last 12 opponents to three runs or fewer.
Yelich had two hits and scored twice for the Brewers, who completed a six-game homestand with a 3-3 record. He finished the three-game series 7-for-12, including having hit for the cycle in Monday's 8-0 win.
The Reds, who won the middle game of the series 3-1 on Tuesday night, finished the season 6-13 against Milwaukee.
--Field Level Media