Cincinnati Reds struggling lineup coughs, sputters into brutal May schedule
SAN DIEGO — The Cincinnati Reds expect to get two bats back in their lineup for the first time in nearly a week Friday with the returns of Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Tyler Stephenson.
Whether lefty slugger Mike Ford would join them for the first time this season was still in the discussion stage as they headed out of San Diego after a 6-2 loss to the Padres at Petco Park on Wednesday ahead of a scheduled off day Thursday.
And that’s about as good as it got for the the scuffling, depleted Reds lineup as they picked up in May where they left off in April against one of the league’s worst teams in its home ballpark.
Wait till they get a load of the American League East-leading Baltimore Orioles team that comes to town Friday during its drive for a second straight 100-win season.
“It hasn’t been easy. But it’s never easy,” manager David Bell said.
Especially when you hit .201 with an average of 10 strikeouts a game like the Reds did during a 2-4 trip that also included a series loss to the defending champion Texas Rangers.
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That offensive output — albeit with multiple regulars missing from the lineup throughout the trip — squandered a week’s worth of stout pitching by the starting rotation, which averaged more than 6 innings a start and produced a 2.21 ERA over the six games.
“It’s part of it. You’re going to have games you go out there and do great and you catch a loss because their pitcher was doing great too, or maybe you left one pitch up and they hit a homer,” said Wednesday’s starter Graham Ashcraft, who allowed just one earned run in 12 1/3 innings across two starts during the trip without a team win to show for either.
“You’ve just got to go out there and do what you can do.”
In what has played out for 31 games this season as a reversal of last year’s formula, the pitching staff — rotation in particular — has kept the Reds afloat while they struggle to find consistent answers for the hitting side of things.
After finishing in the bottom three of major-league starting rotations last year, the Reds rotation has a 3.78 ERA and ranks among MLB’s top six in WAR (per fangraphs.com) through 31 games.
“There’s a lot of stuff that we’re building off of right now,” Ashcraft said. “If we keep doing that throughout the remainder of the season, it’s going to lead to a fun season.
“It’s going to put us in a great spot.”
For now, they're among the worst-hitting teams in the majors and 4-6 through the first three series of a six-week gauntlet of contenders, after becoming just the second team to lose a road series in San Diego this season.
And where they go next figures to have a lot more to do with a hitting crew that managed just four hits Wednesday — and struck out 12 times — in failing to back another good pitching performance.
“We’re keeping everything in perspective,” said center fielder Stu Fairchild, who called his wall-banging effort Wednesday in the first inning to rob Manny Machado of a three-run homer “my best catch ever.”
“We’ve been playing down players against all those teams the past few weeks,” he said. “I think actually we’re doing a really good job of competing and making do with what we’re working with."
How short-handed they've been in recent days came into play in the seventh inning of a 2-2 game Wednesday after Jonathan India drew a leadoff walk against lefty Yuki Matsui.
Instead of going to the natural pinch-hitting option of either Stephenson or Encarnacion-Strand, Bell elected to stick with lefty platoon DH Nick Martini, who struck out. Santiago Espinal followed with a walk, but the Reds didn't score.
"It would have had to have been just a real obvious situation," Bell said to use either of the bench righties who were nursing sore wrists after being hit by pitches Saturday. "These guys, they’ve been dealing with quite a bit of pain. Thankfully, there’s not anything that’s going to keep them out long-term. I fully expect Christian and Tyler to be either back in the lineup Friday or 100 percent available.
"I wouldn’t say we were all the way out fo the woods today," Bell added. "But given the perfect situation, they would have been available."
Short of whatever qualifies as "perfect," the Reds were down to a two-man bench the last four games.
Or one?
In addition to Stephenson and Encarnacion-Strand being down, Jake Fraley took the last two days off ahead of the scheduled off day to help clear the last of a cough lingering from the latest bug to hit a player or staffer.
A few signs of lineup life that came out of the trip included second baseman Jonathan India’s 9-for-22 trip (.409) that included a home run and pair of walks, and long-slumping Jeimer Candelario’s 5-for-11 (.455) series in San Diego that included a double Monday, home run Tuesday and run-scoring single Wednesday.
The flip side of that, of course, is that the rest of the Reds’ production the last six games amounted to 25 hits in 158 ABs (.158).
“This is a long season,” said Candelario, whose fourth-inning error muffing a scoop-and-glove flip from India led to a pair of unearned runs Wednesday. “Everybody wants to start really hot. At the same time, it’s not how you start, it’s the way you handle yourself to finish really hard and help the team win and get to the playoffs and World Series.”
Maybe Stephenson and CES will help that effort when they return. Possibly Fraley, too.
And maybe Ford — who opted out of his minor-league deal Wednesday to put the Reds on the clock for a decision — will be the next roll of the role-player dice from the left side.
And TJ Friedl, the lineup ignitor — who led the majors with 17 bunt hits last year — was to start a minor-league rehab assignment this week with a return from a wrist injury on the near horizon.
“I don’t think anyone’s hanging their head,” Fairchild said. “We know it’s been tough with the sicknesses and the injuries that we’ve been dealt. We’re taking it in stride. We’re doing pretty well with that.”
The only thing they know as they open a six-game homestand against the Orioles and defending NL-champion Arizona Diamondbacks is that it’s not likely to get any easier.
“Challenges will continue like every other team,” said Bell, whose team takes a winning record (16-15) into the stand. “The great thing is how our team has handled it. It’s been amazing in some ways.
“All the things that we can control I couldn’t be happier with.”
Notes
The four runs reliever Fernando Cruz allowed Wednesday on two seventh-inning singles, a walk and Jake Cronenworth’s grand slam were the most he has allowed in any of 85 career appearances. The bullpen’s “King Cobra” had a 1.59 ERA in 12 appearances this season before then, with some of the highest-leverage success in the majors the first month. “He’s human,” Bell said. … Fairchild’s homer-robbing catch of the Machado drive Wednesday was the second such catch of his career. He also took a leadoff shot from Willy Adames in right field on April 8 at home in a 10-8 win over the Brewers. “That was the best play of that type, where you’re robbing a home run, that I’ve ever seen,” Bell said of Wednesday’s effort. “The timing, how high he got, how Stuart went with his back into the wall and was still able to hold onto the ball — that easily could have won us the game.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Reds' coughing, sputtering lineup drops another road series
