Garrett Mitchell is turning into a nightmare the Reds can't wake up from. The Milwaukee center fielder torched Cincinnati for a monster fantasy day, and the Brewers rolled to a 13-9 win Saturday that padded an already gaudy early-season run.
Milwaukee has now won five straight, and two of those wins have come directly at the Reds' expense. This one didn't have the same lopsided feel as Friday's 20-0 blowout, but the result was the same story: Brewers offense clicking, Reds pitching searching for answers.
Mitchell was the headline act. His 69.0 fantasy points led all players by a wide margin and earned him game MVP honors, the kind of performance that instantly becomes the new measuring stick for what a great day at the plate looks like in this young season. Whatever he touched turned into production, and Cincinnati had no answer for him all afternoon.
He wasn't alone. Brice Turang chipped in 42.0 fantasy points from the two-hole, continuing to look like one of the more reliable pieces in Milwaukee's lineup through the opening weeks. William Contreras added 41.5 points from behind the plate, giving the Brewers production up and down the order rather than relying on one or two bats. Cooper Pratt and Jake Bauers rounded out the supporting cast with 24.5 and 21.0 points respectively, and even with Christian Yelich checking in at a modest 20.0, Milwaukee had six players clear the 17-point threshold. That kind of depth is exactly why this team is 5-0 to open the year and hasn't been seriously threatened in any of those wins.
Cincinnati didn't go quietly, though, and that's a small silver lining after a week that otherwise looks brutal on paper. Eugenio Suárez was the best Red on the field, posting 50.5 fantasy points and giving Cincinnati's lineup a jolt that had been mostly absent in the previous four games. Juan Brito backed him up with 45.0 points, and for a stretch it looked like the Reds might actually make a real push. JJ Bleday added 23.0 points and Elly De La Cruz weighed in with 18.5, so there were flashes. The problem was everything after that. Emilio Pagán managed just 7.5 points out of the bullpen, Tyler Stephenson was held to 7.0, and the bottom of the order — Sal Stewart and HĂ©ctor RodrĂguez — combined for just 11.0 points. When your one-through-four hitters are producing and your five-through-eight are nearly invisible, you get exactly this kind of result: enough offense to make the score respectable, not enough to actually win.
The bigger issue for Cincinnati is the pattern now developing after two straight losses to Milwaukee. This loss follows that 20-0 humiliation Friday, and a 9-run output against the Brewers is actually the better of the two offensive showings the Reds have had in this stretch — and they still lost both games. That tells you where the concern lies — it's not that Cincinnati can't score, it's that whatever they put up rarely matches what the other dugout is doing right now.
For Milwaukee, the concern is basically nonexistent at this point. Five wins to open the year, three of them against the Cubs and two against the Reds, without much drama, and a lineup that keeps finding new stars every night. Mitchell's breakout day joins performances from Turang and Contreras to suggest this isn't a one-man show — it's a deep, dangerous group that's going to be tough on anybody they face once the schedule turns.
Cincinnati will need to find pitching depth fast, because right now the arms are the story behind the story. Suárez and Brito can carry the offense for stretches, but no lineup survives long if length below the middle of the order keeps going cold. The early sample is small, but patterns rarely lie in September, and this one says Milwaukee is rolling while the Reds are searching for answers.
Fantasy managers who rostered Mitchell cashed in big Saturday, and his day is the kind of outlier performance that reminds JockBroker users why star power at the top of a lineup can swing an entire slate.
