The Cincinnati Reds headed into the All-Star break carrying a mess of their own making, and Sunday’s 8-4 loss to the Chicago Cubs only sharpened the edges.
They are 43-52 now, nine games under .500 for the first time this season, and the numbers around them are just as bleak. The Reds sit 15 ½ games behind the first-place Milwaukee Brewers and six games behind the next-to-last Pittsburgh Pirates. Since May 1, when they were 20-11, they’ve gone 23-41, the worst record in MLB over that stretch.
What makes the slide sting even more is how familiar it has become. Cincinnati led at some point in 23 of its 52 losses. Against teams in the National League Central, the Reds are 6-22 after dropping five of six to the Cubs this season.
Sunday followed the same painful script as Saturday: an early two-run lead, then a long, steady unraveling. Andrew Abbott got the start and was immediately in trouble, needing 31 pitches to get through the first inning while allowing two runs.
The Reds answered with a four-run third, sparked by Spencer Steer’s RBI groundout and J.J. Bleday’s opposite-field single to tie it.
That hit snapped an 0 for 22 drought for the Reds with runners in scoring position.
Then Eugenio Suarez delivered the big swing. After striking out in the first with two teammates aboard, he unloaded on a full-count pitch and sent a 433-foot, upper deck homer into the night. It gave Cincinnati a 4-2 lead and marked Suarez’s 200th home run in a Reds uniform.
But the lead didn’t last. Abbott gave it back in the next half-inning, working around two four-pitch walks only to watch a two-out single by Kevin Alcantara ricochet off second base and plate two runs. The game was tied 4-4, and Abbott’s afternoon was done after four innings, with four runs, four hits, three walks and 79 pitches.
Tito Francona wasn’t hiding from the issue.
“During the game, we gave up some walks right after we just scored. In the fourth we had two walks and then we get unlucky with a ball that hits the base. But if we don’t have the walks, it doesn’t matter,” he said.
He was even more direct when asked if the sequence was frustrating.
“Always,” he said. “That’s a very big inning.
In my opinion, the most important thing and I know it happens sometimes, more than once. But when you score, you gotta shut ‘em down.”
Francona also pointed to Abbott’s command.
“I would say command was a challenge,” he told reporters about Abbott. “Any time you are at 79 (pitches) after four innings, that’s a lot.
That’s a lot of work. Four-pitch walks - when you see that, four fastballs in a row - that’s not when he is feeling his best.”
Chase Petty covered the fifth and sixth without allowing a run, but the Cubs broke through in the seventh and never looked back. Dansby Swanson opened the inning with a double, Pedro Ramirez failed twice on bunt attempts before striking out, and Pete Crow-Armstrong followed with a single. Seiya Suzuki then punched an infield hit behind second to bring home Swanson and put Chicago ahead 5-4.
That set up Alec Bregman again. After his game-winning two-run homer in Saturday’s 5-3 Cubs victory, he came through once more, this time driving a Pierce Johnson pitch over the center-field wall for a three-run shot that pushed the lead to 8-4.
Francona’s reaction was blunt.
“That seems like a long time ago. We didn’t get the guys out we’re probably supposed to. That leaves us with some difficulties.”
The Reds managed almost nothing after the third inning. From the fourth through the eighth, they produced only singles from Noelvi Marte and Spencer Steer.
They made one last push in the ninth. Edwin Arroyo nearly left the yard, but his hard line drive hit the top of the left-field wall for a leadoff single.
Pinch-hitter Ivan Johnson, still looking for his first MLB hit, flied out to center. Ella De La Cruz followed with a single to put runners on first and third with one out, but the rally stopped there.
Sal Stewart grounded to third, and Steer ended the game with a fly ball to left.
After another lead vanished and another loss piled on, the Reds walked off for the break with the same feeling that has followed them for weeks: another true ending.
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