Andrew Abbott pitched effectively into the sixth inning and the visiting Cincinnati Reds turned mistakes into a big inning en route to a 7-4 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday night, positioning themselves to grab the final National League wild-card spot.
Cincinnati (83-78) remained tied for the last NL postseason berth with the Mets (83-78), who defeated the Marlins 5-0. The Reds hold the tiebreaker over the Mets heading into the last day of the regular season.
Milwaukee (96-65), which won the NL Central last weekend, clinched the No. 1 overall seed and home-field advantage throughout the postseason over Philadelphia (95-66), which lost to Minnesota 5-0. The Brewers, who have lost five of their last six games, hold the tiebreaker over the Phillies.
Abbott (10-7) allowed three runs on five hits in 5 1/3 innings, striking out four and walking none. Emilio Pagan pitched the ninth for his 32nd save in 38 chances.
The Reds took advantage of errors and walks for six runs in the decisive third inning. Noelvi Marte reached on a throwing error by starting pitcher Robert Gasser. Miguel Andujar followed with a double that bounced past diving left fielder Isaac Collins. Sal Stewart’s one-out single scored Marte. Tyler Stephenson walked to load the bases.
Hard-throwing rookie Jacob Misiorowski made his first relief appearance and was greeted by a two-out infield RBI single by Ke’Bryan Hayes. Matt McLain walked to force in a run and make it 3-0. TJ Friedl followed with a two-run single to left and McLain continued around to score on a throwing error by Collins to make it 6-0.
The Brewers got two back in the bottom half on an RBI groundout by Christian Yelich and a run-scoring double by Brice Turang.
Stewart made it 7-2 in the sixth with his fifth homer. The Brewers answered with two runs in the bottom half on Jackson Chourio’s 21st homer and Jake Bauers’ pinch-hit RBI single, but left the bases loaded.
Gasser (0-2), making his second big league start since coming back from Tommy John surgery, allowed four runs, all unearned, on four hits in 2 2/3 innings. He walked a pair and whiffed three.
