When ejections aren’t the most frustrating part of a loss, that’s a good indication things are not going well for a team.

Reds manager David Bell and first baseman Joey Votto were tossed late in the Reds’ 3-2 loss to the Brewers Tuesday night, punctuating a frustrating road trip that hasn’t gotten any easier during their visit to Miller Park. Unfortunately for the Reds, that was only part of the story -- and arguably, not the worst part.

• Box score

Earlier, they were on the wrong end of a bizarre play that crushed their best chance to break through with a big inning, and as it turned out, that was also their last real chance to score the rest of the game. Their final 13 batters went hitless after.

“This is absolutely a tough loss,” Bell said. “What I just keep getting impressed with is our team. It seems like nothing has been going right. We’re not winning games. It’s really difficult to go through that, and our players continue to compete, support one another and do everything in their power to turn this around.”

This game was defined by three key elements:

The ejections
Votto struck out four times for just the fifth time in his career, including three looking, and one or more of those calls may have factored in to his ejection. Votto said something to home-plate umpire Shane Livensparger on his way to play defense in the eighth, and he was quickly ejected. Bell then came out to argue, and he was soon tossed, too.

Was it the fifth-inning strikeout that angered him? Votto was called out on an inside fastball so borderline that a case could be made that it barely missed the plate, or that it barely grazed the corner. Livensparger picked the latter. Votto looked displeased.

“I’d rather not really speculate on the interaction between Joey and the umpire,” Bell said of the ejection. “I don’t know. What I saw was Joey was out at his position. I didn’t think it was necessary to eject him, but I wasn’t a part of the discussion, either.”

The RBI hit that wasn’t
What followed was the most bizarre play of the game. The Reds had a perfect situation in the fifth while facing Brewers ace Brandon Woodruff: bases loaded, and the top of the order coming to the plate.

Following Votto’s strikeout, Nick Castellanos connected with a sinking liner that looked like a base hit, moved through the air like a base hit and landed like a base hit.

But Castellanos was officially credited with a fielder’s choice -- a 9-2 forceout.

Say what?

Because there was one out, Freddy Galvis had to hold up at third to make sure the ball wouldn't be caught. That lapse of a few seconds proved costly. Right fielder Ben Gamel fielded the ball and made a pinpoint throw to home -- his hardest tracked throw this season and hardest ever on a putout, at 90.2 mph -- and all catcher Omar Narváez had to do was catch it and keep his foot on the plate. No tag needed.

“Talking with Freddy, on the line drive, he thought it was going to carry further than it did,” Castellanos said. “And his instinct was to run back to tag, and it ended up falling in front. And then he couldn't get enough momentum to get over to the plate. That's baseball.”

"I don’t think I’ve ever seen that. We may not ever see that again, a 9-2 forceout,” Woodruff said. “It was very confusing. But I think the baseball gods were kind of on my side there a little bit.”

It wasn’t the first 9-2 fielder’s choice, but it’s rare. From a historical perspective, a comparable incident happened July 11, 2009, when Kansas City’s Ryan Freel hit a one-hopper to J.D. Drew, who threw home to force out Miguel Olivo.

Castillo deals
How scarce have hits been for the Reds? When Eugenio Suárez and Mike Moustakas logged back-to-back singles in the fourth, it ended the Reds’ 45-inning streak without more than one hit in an inning. According to Elias, that was the longest streak since the Nationals went 48 straight such innings in 2010.

It also was nothing new for right-hander Luis Castillo, who hasn’t been showered with run support this season. Against the Brewers, he was on point, fanning nine over six innings. He’s still looking for his first win of the season, however. The Reds have lost all but one of Castillo’s starts, and they've been shut out twice.

The pitcher watched the fifth inning unfold and was initially encouraged, thinking this could be the breakout the Reds have been waiting for.

“That’s what I was thinking -- that was our turning point,” Castillo said. “We were either going to be tied or we were going to take the lead. But unfortunately, it didn’t happen. That’s why I think that we could have come away with the victory today.”