CINCINNATI -- The scowl on Jonathan Lucroy's face had been planted there since Friday night, when the Brewers catcher endured a rare three-strikeout game. Some players don't particularly mind walking back to the dugout with a bat in his hand. Lucroy is not a member of that camp.
"I care. I hate strikeouts. Hate," Lucroy said Saturday afternoon, and the scowl grew deeper after Lucroy struck out in the first inning Saturday night and appeared to do so again in the third. Then, the baseball gods offered a reprieve.
Home-plate umpire Quinn Wolcott ruled a foul tip on what looked like Lucroy's two-strike swing-and-miss on a pitch in the dirt, to the dismay of Reds manager Bryan Price.