The Reds keep asking their pitchers to hold the line, and Tuesday night in Great American Ball Park was another reminder of how thin that margin has become. Cincinnati was blanked 3-0 by the Cardinals, managed just three singles, and never seriously threatened to turn the game around.
It was the kind of night that leaves a staff stranded. Andrew Abbott turned in a solid outing - 6⅓ innings, four hits, two runs - and still walked away with his eighth loss against six wins.
The offense gave him almost nothing to work with, and that theme has become far too familiar. In six of the Reds’ last 10 losses, they’ve scored one run or fewer.
That’s the bigger story behind the shutout. It was Cincinnati’s 12th of the season and its 14th one-run loss, and the bats never found a rhythm against five St.
Louis pitchers. Kyle Leahy, who improved to 10-4, worked five innings and threw 90 pitches before handing it off to a bullpen that finished the job with scoreless, hitless frames from Ryne Stanek, Gordon Graceffo, George Soriano and Riley O’Brien.
“We ran up their pitcher’s pitch count (starter Kyle Leahy, 10-4) and had nothing to show for it,” Reds manager Tito Francona told reporters, talking about Leahy leaving after only five innings and 90 pitches.
“They’ve done a really good job against us,” Francona continued. “You look up in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings and we’ve had a couple or three hits for three games in a row.”
Cincinnati’s three hits all came as singles, and only one runner got as far as second base. Fifteen of the Reds’ last 16 outs came in a stretch that looked more like a dead end than a rally.
The early chances were there, just not the execution. Sal Stewart singled in the first, but JJ Bleday and Eugenio Suarez both struck out.
Ke’Bryan Hayes singled in the third, then Elly De La Cruz struck out and Stewart grounded out. De La Cruz finished 0 for 4 with two strikeouts and an error.
Dane Myers opened the fifth and became the only Reds runner to reach second, moving up on Matt McLain’s deep fly to center. But Hector Rodriguez and Hayes both flied out, with Hayes sending his ball to the warning track.
The seventh inning brought one more flicker. Eugenio Suarez drew a full-count walk to start the frame, but Tyler Stephenson struck out for the third time, Myers bounced into a fielder’s choice and McLain flied out to the warning track.
That was the whole evening from the Reds’ offense. A whole bunch of nothing.
Abbott was sharp from the start, opening the game with 17 straight strikes. St.
Louis had just one hit with one out in the fifth inning before Masyn Winn changed the game. Winn, who had been 0 for 15 when the series began, doubled in the second and then hammered a homer to put the Cardinals ahead 1-0.
Winn doubled again down the left field line with one out in the seventh, and Jose Fermin followed with a double to bring him home for a 2-0 lead.
“I though Abbott was really good,” said Francona. “He gave up the solo homer to Winn, but he was filling up the strike zone with all his pitches. He was on his game, which was great to see.
“I thought he looked really good and we just have to find a way to score some runs for him.”
That’s not just about Abbott, either. Francona made the point that the same problem keeps showing up for Chase Burns, Brady Singer, Nick Lodolo, Rhett Lowder and the rest of the staff.
St. Louis added its final run against Zach ‘Big Sugar’ Maxwell, who worked the last 2⅔ innings in the longest MLB appearance of his career.
Jordan Walker opened the eighth with an infield single, Alec Burleson doubled him to third, and rookie Joshua Baez lifted a medium-depth fly to center. Walker tagged and tried to score, but Dane Myers unleashed a throw clocked at 103 miles an hour that nearly cut him down.
The throw missed off line, though, and Walker crossed to make it 3-0.
Francona liked what he saw from Maxwell, who had just been recalled from Triple-A Louisville.
“That was a big step,” he said. “He threw a lot of pitches (38 in 2⅔ innings, 27 strikes). They did a good job at Triple-A getting him stretched out.
“He gave up one, but he threw the ball over the plate and his ball had good finish to it,” he added. “He helped us get back to our bullpen where we don’t feel we’re overusing them.”
The loss, paired with Pittsburgh’s 4-1 win over Detroit, dropped Cincinnati into sole possession of last place in the National League Central. The Reds are 12-26 against division opponents and now sit a season-worst 18 games behind first-place Milwaukee, which rolled past Seattle 22-0 on Tuesday.
At this point, the Reds could probably use a few of those Brewers runs.
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