With a pitching staff short of arms, the Milwaukee Brewers got a big lift from Colin Rea in beating the Houston Astros 6-0 at American Family Field Tuesday night. The win snapped Houston’s winning streak which hit 8 in a row with the 12-2 rout of the Crew in the series opener Monday night. Brandon Woodruff it out long term, Eric Lauer and Aaron Ashby are the two left handers on the mend while Rea has held down an interim spot in the rotation getting mixed results. He was sent down to the minors after his last outing but given the ball on the home diamond, Rea put together one of his best outings of the year, holding the heavy hitting Houston lineup to four hits over five plus innings. It was the first win as a starter for Rea since the 2016 season when he was with San Diego. Rookie Joey Wiemer staked Rea to the lead with a solo home run in the third inning. The Brewers plated a second run in the 4th thanks to heads up base running by Owen Miller and a couple of errant throws. Miller swiped second with the throw rolling into centerfield and another error allowed Miller to race all the way to make it 2-0. The Brewers bullpen and defense held the fort from the there. Wiemer make a couple of outstanding running catches in centerfield while Joel Payamps and Peter Strzelecki kept Houston off the board. Milwaukee put the game away with a 4 run outburst in the bottom of the 9th. Brian Anderson delivered a clutch, two out, two run double to double the lead and then Miller cracked a home run to the upper deck in left for the final two runs. This was the 5th shutout of the year for the beleaguered staff, tied for second best in the league. The Brewers improved to 26-22 and moved back into first in the NL Central race by a game after the Pirates were shut down by Texas 6-1. Adrian Houser will face Brandon Bielak in the series finale Wednesday afternoon. Pre-game coverage begins at 11:35 AM with a 12:10 PM first pitch on WNFL.
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