Player of the gameBrandon SproatMIL5.1ip 4h 2er 7k
MILWAUKEE – Brewers manager Pat Murphy has spent more time than normal in his office since undergoing back surgery last week, but he limped into the hitters’ meeting on Monday afternoon as the Brewers prepared to play the Reds. Murphy didn’t mince words. His team was in a weeklong funk with runners in scoring position, and while Murphy knew that clutch hitting ebbs and flows, he wasn’t fond of the approaches he’d seen. He saw a group trying way too hard to make something happen. “It’s not what a championship ballclub does, if we’re interested in that,” Murphy said. “So, it’s got to change.” In the two days since, maybe it’s started to change. On the heels of Monday’s comeback victory in which infielder Joey Ortiz played the unlikely hero, the Brewers passed the proverbial baton on Tuesday night like they do when they’re at their pesky best, riding a four-run fourth inning and home runs from Jake Bauers and Jackson Chourio to a 7-2 win over the Reds at American Family Field. The Brewers are now 50-19 (.725) in their last 69 games against the Reds with a current six-game winning streak. Milwaukee’s first five batters to step to home plate against Reds' starter Rhett Lowder in the fourth inning all singled, part of a 10-hitter, six-hit, four-run rally that turned a 1-1 tie into a 5-1 Brewers lead on the way to a 14-hit night, a fifth consecutive victory over Cincinnati in the past nine days and a third straight victory in a Brandon Sproat start. “It was good to get back to our roots,” said Sal Frelick, who tallied three hits to finish a month of June in which he batted .348 with an .880 OPS. “We had a little meeting and discussed what makes us great, and it was great to go out the last two days and put that out there.” The Brewers collected five singles with runners in scoring position in that inning alone. Frelick’s bloop hit to left field drove in the go-ahead run, and Ortiz added insurance with a bouncer over first base for two more runs. By night’s end the Brewers were 5-for-11 in the clutch, a breakout compared to the frustration of the previous week. It was just the sort of approach the Brewers discussed in their meeting. “It was like a meeting you would have in Spring Training,” Frelick said. “The season is so long, you play every day. It’s not that \[the message\
