Brandon Williamson had the longest outing of his major league career as he had a quality start Friday for the Cincinnati Reds vs. the Milwaukee Brewers.
He went 6.2 innings, allowing three runs (two earned) on five hits, walking two and striking out six. He threw 90 pitches, 59 for strikes.
A crowd announced at 44,073 was in attendance to watch the Martin County West graduate pitch. That's the largest regular-season crowd in the history of Great American Ballpark, which opened in 2003.
Some may have also come to see the Zac Brown Band in concert following the game, which Milwaukee won 5-4 in 11 innings.
Williamson needed only 90 pitches as he reached the seventh inning for the first time in the big leagues.
"I was pretty happy with being able to get to the seventh, landing all my pitches, getting ahead of guys," Williamson told The Enquirer. "Just giving the team a chance."
Manager David Bell is usually averse to having starters face a lineup three times, but Williamson was so efficient that he was given that chance. He showed he could handle the longer outing, retiring 10 of his last 12 batters.
"He did a really great job and gave us a shot to win," Bell said. "He got deep into the game, which was important to our bullpen."
His only mistake was a first-pitch cutter over the middle of the plate to Joey Wiemer, who hit a two-out, two-run homer to left field in the second.
"Curveball started coming on the more the game went on. Changeup for sure has been a weapon," Williamson said. "I really felt probably the best I have in a long time with my fastball tonight, actually. I think we picked our times to use it really well. We just attacked all night.
"Walking off was really special," said Williamson, who was drafted by the Brewers in the 36th round of the 2018 MLB June Amateur Draft from NIACC. "That's probably one of the bigger crowds I've ever thrown in front of and pitched pretty well. That's when it hit me. It was a pretty special day. It was cool seeing the third deck full."
Through four big league starts since being called up from Louisville on May 16, Williamson has a 4.29 earned run average. He does not have a decision and Friday's game was the first the Reds have lost when Williamson started.
"He’s showing he’s comfortable pitching at this level and he has the stuff to do it," Bell said. "When you pitch how he pitched tonight, it’s a really good way to have success. He’s not giving hitters too much credit. He’s getting good hitters out. He’s doing it by making good pitches, throwing strikes and trusting his ability. He has plenty of that. That’ll be the key, to take that approach."
The Brewers have won the first three games of the four-game series, winning 10-8 Saturday and 5-1 Sunday. First-place Milwaukee leads third-place Cincinnati by six games in the National League Central.
After the series finale Monday, the Reds open a three-game series vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday.
Williamson will start Wednesday. Former All-Star Noah Syndergaard (1-4) is scheduled to start for the Dodgers.