Reds Fall To Brewers 5-1.

It was Friday the 13th at Miller Park, and Reds starter Mat Latos was feeling the unlucky bug.

The right hander watched Carlos Gomez bloop run scoring singles off of his bat in his first two plate appearances, and Gomez added a two-run single up the middle in the seventh to help the  Brewers defeat the Reds  5-1 Friday night at Miller Park.

The Reds remained 2 1/2 games behind the Pirates, who lost Friday, for the first Wild Card position, and 3 1/2 games behind the Cardinals for the lead in the National League Central.  And don’t look now but the surging Washington Nationals are 4.5 games out of the 2nd wild card spot so more stressing for Reds fans.

The Reds wish they could rewind the past five days. After taking three of four from the Cardinals and sweeping the Dodgers to start a 10-game homestand, they dropped two of three to the last place Cubs and lost the opener of a three-game series to the Brewers to kick off their final road trip of the season a nine-game stretch against Milwaukee, Houston and Pittsburgh.

Cincinnati has dropped seven of its last 11 games against the Brewers this season after winning five of the first six, and it fell to 3-5 at Miller Park.

Gomez started the scoring with a bloop two run single with the bases loaded in the first inning off Latos. The bases were loaed after Norichika Aoki walked on four pitches, Ludwick misplayed a Jonathan Lucroy line drive and Aramis Ramirez took a Latos fastball off his left wrist.

Ludwick had a chance to record the second out of the inning, but he said he lost Lucroy’s liner into the left-center field gap in the Miller Park lights.

Devin Mesoraco got the Reds on the board with an RBI fielder’s choice in the second inning to cut the defcit to 2-1 off Brewers starter Kyle Lohse, but Gomez flared another single  into left field , scoring Jean Segura from second with two outs in the third for a 3-1 lead.

Meanwhile, the Reds could not get anything against Lohse after Mesoraco’s RBI groundout. Lohse escaped a bases-loaded, nobody-out jam to allow just the one run and threw six consecutive 1-2-3 innings. The only baserunner Lohse allowed in the final seven innings was a two-out walk to Jay Bruce before Ludwick grounded out, sealing his complete game.

This afternoon pitching match up will be Homer Bailey for the Reds and Johnny Hellweg for the Brewers. First pitch is at 1:05pm.