The Cincinnati Reds will continue their pursuit of the final wild-card berth in the National League when they turn to Andrew Abbott to start Saturday’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Abbott (9-7, 2.80 ERA) is expected to be opposed by fellow left-hander Robert Gasser (0-1, 6.00), who is making his second start since coming off the injured list following Tommy John surgery in 2024.
The Reds (82-78), who are chasing their first postseason berth since 2020, won the series opener 3-1 on Friday night to pull into a tie for the last wild-card spot with the New York Mets (82-78), who dropped a 6-2 decision at Miami. The Reds, however, own the tiebreaker over the Mets by virtue of winning the season series.
Zack Littell and four relievers combined to limit the Brewers to three hits in the series opener. Gavin Lux ripped a double in the fourth and sixth innings and came around to score both times.
Connor Phillips got the win in relief Friday to improve to 5-0. He has recorded eight straight scoreless outings and hasn’t allowed a hit in 10 innings.
Brewers starter Quinn Priester, who had won a franchise-record 12 consecutive decisions, lost for the first time since mid-May.
“I don’t want to get too philosophical, because I can’t, but we just want to win and we did,” Reds manager Terry Francona said. “We beat a really good team. And now, we’ll enjoy it for a few minutes, and when the song’s over, we’ll see if we can beat them again tomorrow.”
Milwaukee (96-64), which won the NL Central and clinched a first-round bye, has a magic number of one over Philadelphia (95-65) to secure the No. 1 seed and home-field advantage for the entire postseason. The NL East champion Phillies recorded a 3-1 win over the Minnesota Twins on Friday.
Milwaukee has won each of the last 13 series versus Cincinnati and 17 of the last 19 dating back to 2021.
Abbott has struggled down the stretch. He is 1-4 with a 4.03 ERA over his last seven starts.
Abbott is 1-2 with a 3.68 ERA in four starts this month but lasted just 4 2/3 innings in three of them. In his last start, he allowed five hits in 4 2/3 scoreless innings but did not get the decision in a 1-0 win over the Chicago Cubs.
Abbott is 2-4 with a 3.57 ERA in seven career starts versus Milwaukee. He is 0-1 in two starts this season against the Brewers, allowing five runs in 13 innings.
Milwaukee has been struggling offensively. The Brewers have scored fewer than four runs in six of their last seven games. Milwaukee is 80-16 when scoring four or more runs but just 16-48 when scoring three or fewer.
“It certainly hasn’t been a juggernaut, that’s for sure,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said of the offense following Friday’s game. “We haven’t played our typical ball-strike, grind-it-out game.”
Gasser was 2-0 with a 2.57 ERA in five starts last season before undergoing surgery in June of last season. He was 3-2 with a 2.37 ERA in 14 minor league appearances this season. At Triple-A Nashville, Gasser was 3-2 with a 2.25 ERA in 10 games, including six starts.
Gasser took the loss in his lone start for the Brewers last Sunday allowing two runs on one hit in three innings of a 5-1 defeat at St. Louis.
–Field Level Media
