Brewers 6, Reds 5: Joel Kuhnel pulls off an escape act for nail-biting win

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Brewers 6, Reds 5: Joel Kuhnel pulls off an escape act for nail-biting win

Curt Hogg, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel · Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Wed, Jun 24, 2026 ·

6 min read

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CINCINNATI – The Milwaukee Brewers walked out of Great American Ball Park with their chests heavy but a sweep in hand.

Without any of their top three relief arms available, the Brewers nearly saw a five-run lead evaporate in the final three innings but Joel Kuhnel avoided a disaster from the B-team bullpen with a scoreless ninth in a 6-5 win over the Cincinnati Reds on June 24.

It was Kuhnel's second save of the series against his former club and prevented the Brewers from going into an off-day ahead of a key series against the Chicago Cubs with a bad taste in their mouths.

BOX SCORE: Brewers 6, Reds 5

William Contreras and Jake Bauers slugged back-to-back homers in the third and Andrew Vaughn hit a three-run double in the seventh to stake the Brewers to a 6-1 lead.

But one run on Grant Anderson in the seventh and three against Craig Yoho in the eighth made things rather dicey.

It only escalated from there, though, with Joel Kuhnel issuing a pair of walks to raise Milwaukee's total on the game to a season high-tying 11, only to roll a grounder off Dane Myers ' bat to Cooper Pratt, who started a game-ending double play.

Cincinnati stranded 16 men on base, tied for the most ever in a game won by Milwaukee.

Craig Yoho escapes Grant Anderson's mess but then creates one of his own

With only two available relievers still left in the bullpen behind him, Grant Anderson didn't do his job in the seventh.

Anderson ran into trouble after getting the first two outs, allowing an Eugenio Suárez RBI double that made it a 6-2 game and then walking the ensuing two hitters to bring the tying run to the plate and Chris Hook to the mound for a pitching change.

Craig Yoho entered in the top leverage moment of his young big-league career and got JJ Bleday to roll over on a first-pitch changeup. Yoho did forget to cover first but was bailed out by Bauers winning the race to the base.

Yoho then found himself in a similar mess in the eighth – this time of his own doing.

A two-out, two-run homer by Spencer Steer capped a three-run outburst against the Brewers reliever that turned it to a one-run game. Yoho allowed a leadoff hit to Edwin Arroyo , then lost Elly De La Cruz at the end of a nine-pitch battle with.

An escape route presented itself when Yoho got a pair of groundouts, one of which made it 6-3, but left an 0-1 heater right down the pipe to Steer, who rocketed it out to center at 103.5 mph.

Andrew Vaughn takes his turn

In the managerial matchup, Pat Murphy came away with the upper hand on Terry Francona in a key spot.

With the bases loaded and one out with the Brewers ahead, 3-1, in the seventh, Murphy lifted Garrett Mitchell for Vaughn for the platoon advantage with left-hander Sam Moll on the mound. The Reds had right-hander Tejay Antone warming but opted to stick with Moll against Vaughn, who was 20 for 44 with 11 extra-base hits against southpaws this year coming in.

Vaughn pushed that extra-base knock total to 12 by smacking a bases-clearing double down the line in left and made it a 6-1 game in the process.

At last, a hit with RISP

Blake Dunn 's grounder inside the first base bag for a two-out RBI double in the sixth brought an end to the ballpark-wide drought of clutch hitting.

Dunn's hit against Chad Patrick , which cut the Brewers' lead to 3-1, was the first by either team with a runner in scoring position all series, ending an 0 for 29 skid.

The Reds finished 3 for 17 with RISP after having only three such at-bats in the first two games.

Reds pushing the pitch count but can't come through

Jun 24, 2026; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Shane Drohan (55) throws against the Cincinnati Reds in the first inning at Great American Ball Park. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-Imagn Images

Two base hits along with 10 foul balls through four batters in the third had Drohan's back firmly pressed up against the wall.

With his pitch count surpassing 70 during a 12-pitch at-bat that Sal Stewart capped with a rope up the middle, Drohan executed a sinker at the knees and got a 6-4-3 double play off Spencer Steer's bat. The double play came on pitch number 75 and was a critical moment considering the Brewers' lack of bullpen options available.

Droahn made it through one out in the fifth, going 98 pitches before being replaced by Chad Patrick. The Reds fouled 27 pitches off of him.

Brewers go back-to-back for the first time in 2026

There are plenty of examples to show that the Brewers do not hit many homers, including the fact that they hadn't gone deep all season until William Contreras and Jake Bauers did it in the bottom of the third.

Contreras lined a two-run shot just over the glove of center fielder Dane Myers, a 399-foot swing that kicked off the scoring.

CINCINNATI, OHIO - JUNE 24: Dane Myers #17 of the Cincinnati Reds fails to catch a home run that was hit by William Contreras #24 of the Milwaukee Brewers in the third inning at Great American Ball Park on June 24, 2026 in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)

Bauers followed moments later on a 2-2 pitch from Reds starter Rhett Lowder . Bauers drove a changeup, a pitch that had been giving him problems in the series, up about six rows from the top of the right-field seats for a majestic 428-foot blast.

Shane Drohan pulls a rabbit in the second

Shane Drohan's escape act in the second pushed the streak of consecutive innings in the series without a hit with runners in scoring position for either side to 21.

This was the perhaps the best scoring chance yet, too.

When Spencer Steer singled and Suárez hit the ultimate duck snort double just inside the right-field chalk, the Reds appeared set up for their first runs in regulation innings in the series.

Instead, Drohan locked them down. It began by freezing Noelvi Marte with a front-door sinker for strike three, then getting Matt McLain out in front of a slider for a pop to second following a walk of Tyler Stephenson . Drohan then carved up leadoff man Blake Dunn with a curveball, slider and comeback sinker that clipped the bottom of the zone.

Dunn challenged, but to no avail. Contreras, meanwhile, flippantly floated the ball to third and walked to the dugout without ever breaking stride to glance back at the scoreboard to see the ABS ruling.