SAN FRANCISCO — The hardest part of the Reds' remaining schedule — the most difficult in the Majors — was supposed to happen after they finished the series against a team that had struggled all month in the Giants.
Yet the Reds have already dropped this series with back-to-back defeats by San Francisco, including Tuesday's 3-1 loss to fall to 1-4 on the 10-day, nine-game road trip. It's after Wednesday's finale that Cincinnati commences a stretch of 25 straight games against teams currently in playoff position.
Despite Giants starting pitchers working a combined 4 1/3 innings in the first two games because of early injury exits, the Reds have scored only one run in the series. And that didn't come until the top of the ninth inning when Sal Stewart led off with his 28th home run of the year to right field. That ended a streak of 23 consecutive innings without scoring for Cincinnati, the club's longest since May 4-6 of last season.
After Adrian Houser departed with right flexor tightness with two outs in the second inning, emergency reliever Anthony Molina followed with 4 1/3 scoreless innings.
“It’s like we get in a mode where I think we’re trying to hit everything," manager Terry Francona said. "The kid came in, threw his fastball to both sides of the plate and then we started chasing the changeup. We’ve got to know what we want to do and stick to the plan. Start trying to hit everything, and then we get ourselves into trouble.”
Like in Monday's 5-0 loss for Chase Burns, Brady Singer fell into a quick first-inning hole. Singer threw his first pitch of the game behind Drew Gilbert and then hit him in the right leg with a sinker.
After that, Singer walked Rafael Devers and hit Jung-Hoo Lee in the leg with an 0-2 pitch to load the bases with no outs. With one out, Drew Cavanaugh hit a seeing-eye two-run single through the middle for a 2-0 Giants lead.
"Not a very good first inning. Obviously, I didn’t have much control of anything," Singer said. "It was just trying to figure out a way to fight through it and give us a chance.”
Singer eventually did just that and retired 11 of his next 14 batters faced, but opened the bottom of the fifth inning with Devers hitting his 1-1 cutter to right field for a home run and a three-run deficit – which felt much bigger with the way the offense has scuffled.
At 62-71, and a season-high-tying nine games under .500, the Reds have lost 13 of their last 19 games, and scored three or fewer runs in 12 of those games.
“They’re going out there and trying their best, just like I am," Singer said. "We’re all working on trying to get better. Sometimes it doesn’t work out. Keep grinding; we’ve got another game tomorrow.”
The Reds will be keeping an added eye on Singer after a mishap in the bottom of the sixth inning. With one out, Grant McCray hit a chopper that went off Singer's glove for an error. Singer tried to retrieve the ball while sliding in the grass and appeared to come up favoring his right side. Head trainer Sean McQueeney, assistant pitching coach Matt Tracy and Francona came out to see Singer, but he continued after two warm-up pitches.
“I just jammed my ribs a little bit, but I felt fine," Singer said. "It was just kind of grabbing. I landed a little weird.”
“Sean thinks it’s more of a bruise-type thing," Francona said. "Certainly, we’ll check him tomorrow, but the feeling is it’s kind of a bruise.”
Two batters later, Gilbert hit a two-out single to right field that ended Singer's night.
Singer finished with three runs allowed on six hits and two walks over 5 2/3 innings with five strikeouts.
“I actually thought he hurt himself the second pitch of the game [to Gilbert]," Francona said. "But, like Singer can do, he limited damage in the first inning and then he went out and competed like crazy like he always does. And then you look up in the sixth, seventh inning and you’ve got a chance to win. That’s what he does.”