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cincinnati Reds milwaukee brewers nick lodolo terry francona 1-0 loss
Cincinnati Reds pitcher Nick Lodolo talks about Reds’ scoring woes after getting charged in Milwaukee with Reds’ third straight 1-0 loss
MILWAUKEE – What do you call an unearned run in the fourth inning against the Cincinnati Reds these days?
An insurmountable lead.
If that sounds like a joke, the Reds’ lineup is the punchline.
“They’re trying their ass off, maybe too hard,” Reds manager Terry Francona said after the Reds opened a four-game series against the Brewers in Milwaukee with a record third consecutive 1-0 loss.
The Reds on Thursday joined Gene Mauch’s woeful 1960 Philadelphia Phillies as the only team to lose three consecutive 1-0 games since MLB’s dead-ball era ended 105 years ago.
They’re just the sixth overall, also including the 1917 Pittsburgh Pirates, 1909 Washington Nationals, 1908 St. Louis Browns and 1908 Brooklyn Superbas.
It’s the first time in the history of the oldest professional franchise in the sport that the Cincinnati team in any era has pulled off the dubious “feat.”
No team has done it in four straight games.
“Nobody’s happy with what’s happened the last three games,” Francona said. “We’ll figure it out together. I feel strongly about that.”
Thursday’s loss to the Brewers ran the Reds’ scoreless streak to 28 innings. They haven’t scored a run since Monday.
The last time they went that long without scoring was a 28-inning stretch last September that ended when they scored three times in the final inning of the season.
The last time they went longer than that was a 30-inning drought April 2-6, 2019.
And to think the game before the streak began they scored 14 runs. They’ve barely had that many base runners since then – and it took two errors to reach that number (along with nine hits, three walks).
So much for torpedo bats and fast starts.
At least nobody’s talking anymore about a closer controversy.
Too soon?
The streak started with a position player (Ezequiel Duran) on the mound throwing eephus pitches in the final inning of that blowout win against the Rangers Monday.
“It’s in there. We know it,” said veteran catcher Jose Trevino, whose leadoff double in the third gave the Reds their best scoring chance Thursday. “So we’ve just got to keep going.”
Meanwhile, the Reds’ touted pitching has gotten off to the kind of start that has made the arms look better than advertised.
“It’s part of the game,” Lodolo (1-1) said. “I obviously want us to score, but I’ve got to do my job at the end of the day regardless. We’ll turn it around. I guarantee you that.”
Francona and Trevino both said the hitters aren’t pressing. At least yet.
Hey, they still have 15 innings to go before they catch the Royals’ 43-inning scoring drought of 2017.
“You see this all the time throughout a baseball season,” Trevino said. “The pitchers will pick up the hitters, and the hitters will pick up the pitchers. It will all switch at some point. We’re going to need them. They’re going to need us. And at some point we’re all going to be together.
“We’re grinding. It’s not like we’re trying to give outs away.”
If anything, the fact they took the skid that began with two games at home against the Texas Rangers into their Milwaukee opener only rubs salt in the wound if recent history means anything.
The Brewers have won 10 straight series over the Reds and 14 of the last 16, dating to 2021.
The Brewers have won four of the past five meetings and eight of the last 10. And if this seems familiar with that opponent across the way, maybe it’s because the Reds had a 28-inning scoreless drought in July 2023 that was entirely against the Brewers (with departed Corbin Burnes pitching two of those games).
“Part of it’s baseball,” Francona said. “Part of it’s not a lot of fun.”
The only run of the game scored from third on a two-out single by Sal Frelick off Reds starter Nick Lodolo in the fourth.
It was an unearned run because of a Lodolo error on a one-out grounder to first, when he dropped Christian Encarnacion-Strand’s short toss at first.
Lodolo struck out four and didn’t walk a batter in 6 2/3 innings.
And that’s the thing. The pitching has been doing the job – a team 2.47 ERA through seven games. The starting rotation: 2.06.
“If that trend continues these conversations will be a lot more fun,” Francona said.
