McCoy: Reds lose finale in Milwaukee but pop champagne after clinching NL Wild Card

They lost their last regular season game, 4-2, to the Milwaukee Brewers, but the Miami Marlins shut out the New York Mets, 4-0.

And that plopped the Reds into the postseason, into the playoffs as the No. 3 wild card in the National League.

So the screaming, the yelling, the champagne spraying and the cigar smoking permeated the post-game clubhouse as they partied like animals, partied like it was 1999.

Some critics will say the Reds backed in, didn’t finish the job themselves.

Not so. They won two of three from the Brewers, a team that habitually whipped the Reds time and time and time again.

They did it in Milwaukee, where the Brewers were 52-29. They did it against a team that set a franchise record with 97 wins. They did it against the team with the best record in MLB this season.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Manager Tito Francona has done it many times as manager of the Boston Red Sox and manager of the Cleveland Indians/Guardians.

That doesn’t make this one any less special.

“Get old? Are you kidding me, I mean look at this room,” he told reporters after the game. “They deserve to blow it out. And I know we have some stuff ahead of us.”

Indeed, they do. Their first assignment, beginning Tuesday, is a best-of-three series in Los Angeles against the mighty Dodgers.

LA won five of six games this season against the Reds, but if they can take two-of-three in Milwaukee, who’s to say they can’t take two-of-three in Los Angeles?

“You know what? They’re a team. They act like a team, they play like a team, we’ve gone through tough times like a team and now we’re going to party together like a team,” Francona said behind goggles to ward off the champagne shower.

“I am so proud of them, I just want to sit back and watch ‘em have fun. They deserve it,” he added.

Relief pitcher Brent Suter, a guy with a permanent smile and a cockeyed optimist, was screaming to the high heavens.

“We got this, we’re on our way. This is step one to achieving our goals,” he yelled. “We freakin’ did it, baby. You can’t kill the Reds, you can’t kill the Reds.”

Leadoff hitter TJ Friedl was told by Francona during spring training, “All I want you to do is get on base twice a game.” And Friedl was a better table-setter than a waiter in Tampa’s Bern’s Steak House.

“This is nothing like I’ve ever felt,” he said. “It’s incredible. It’s amazing. Look at everyone in here. It’s why we do it. We’re not done. We’re going to enjoy every second of it.

“We lost today, but we stick together,” he added. “From spring training to the last second, the last out. There are going to be lows and there are going to be highs. As long as we stick together...that’s what we did all year as a group.”

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Elly De La Cruz was a big part of all of this, so big that he played in all 162 games and finished the regular season with a home run Sunday.

“It’s amazing,” he said, speaking English that he took upon himself to learn after speaking through a translator during his first season.

“We’re here and we’re amazing, amazing,” he said. “Since I’ve been here, this is what we wanted and we did it all working together.”

Asked if he is ready to go back to LA and do some damage, De La Cruz said: “Absolutely. We stay together, we play together, we support each other, we can do everything.”

As if the game mattered in the long run, the Reds took a 2-0 lead on a home run by De La Cruz, leading off the second and a home run leading off the third by Friedl.

After Friedl’s homer, Noelvi Marte singled, but the Reds didn’t get a hit over the final six innings.

And Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy did the Reds a huge favor. He started 17-game winner Freddy Peralta, but it was just a tune-up. He only pitched two innings.

Then Murphy used three pitchers just off the injured list, D.L. Hall, Trevor Megill and Chad Patrick.

But the Brewers put their leadoff batter on base in six of their eight innings and only scored in two.

Reds starter Brady Singer gave up back-to-back doubles to Jackson Chourio and Brice Turang for a run in the third. And he gave up a two-run home run to No. 9 hitter Danny Jansen during Milwaukee’s three-run fourth.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

It was the 40th time this season the Reds held a lead and lost. And it was the 54th time they’ve scored two or fewer runs.

Right now, none of that matters.

The Reds are in the playoffs for the first time during a full season in 12 years, since they made it in 2013 and lost a one-game wild-card game to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-2.

And they are seeking their first postseason series win since 1995 — when they beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Division Series.

There was some symmetry to Sunday’s drama in 1999 involving the Brewers and the Mets. The Reds had to win their last game of the season in Milwaukee to tie the New York Mets and force a one-game playoff for a postseason spot.

They beat the Brewers in a game interrupted by rain a couple of times, forcing long delays, but they won. Then Mets pitcher Al Leiter, using 136 pitches, shut out the Reds, 5-0, in the play-in game.

But now it is on to Los Angeles, with Hunter Greene poised to face the Dodgers and most likely Clayton Kershaw.

Gavin Lux won a World Series ring last year with the Dodgers and knows what it’s all about.

“You can’t kill us. Cockroaches,” he said. “It’s all special. You never know when you’re going to get to pop the champagne again. Because of the way we did it and the way we stuck together, we deserve it.”

NEXT GAME