Cincinnati Reds Trying To Push On After Horrid Start

It might have been the epitome of everything that has gone wrong with the Cincinnati Reds this season.

The Reds held the Pirates without a hit Sunday at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Yet Cincinnati wound up losing the game 1-0 when the Pirates parlayed three walks and a bobbled groundball into an eighth-inning run.

It marked just the sixth time since 1901 that a major league team did not allow a hit and lost.

That is how it has been going for the Reds since last season ended. Owner Bob Castellini forced general manager Nick Krall into a series of cost-cutting trades in the offseason and the aftermath is the Reds have the worst record in the major leagues at 9-26.

The Reds are already 13 ½ games behind the division-leading Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Central standings. It is a sobering reality for a team that reached the postseason during the pandemic-affected 2020 season and contended for a playoff spot late into last season.

“It’s been a tough go,” infielder Colin Moran admitted over the weekend. “It seems like we’ve had a lot of things go against us so far.”

It started at the end of the last season when Castellini decided to have the Reds retrench after going 83-79.

Left-hander Sonny Gray was traded to the Minnesota Twins, catcher Tucker Barnhart was dealt to the Detroit Tigers and third baseman Eugenio Suarez and left fielder Jesse Winker were shipped to the Seattle Mariners.

Right fielder Nick Castellanos opted out of the final two years on his contract and left as a free agent. Left-hander Wade Miley was lost to the Chicago Cubs on waivers in an outright salary dump.

Thus, when the season began, most prognosticators tabbed the Reds for fourth place in the NL Central ahead of only the Pirates, who have had three straight finishes in the division’s basement.

However, only the biggest pessimist couldn’t have imaged how bad the Reds would be.

They beat the defending World Series champion Braves in Atlanta on opening day then everything spiraled out of control until the Reds stood just 3-22 after 25 games. Cincinnati had losing streaks of 11 and nine games during that span.

The Reds have been beset by a string of injuries as well as a COVID-19 outbreak. They currently have 14 players on the injured list and have made 23 moves involving the IL through the first 34 games.

The most notable missing player is first baseman Joey Votto, who tested positive for COVID and went on the IL on May 2. He began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Louisville last Saturday and is expected to rejoin the active roster at some point this week.

There are questions about whether the 38-year-old Votto can still be a productive player. He is hitting .122 through 22 games with only one extra-base hit in 90 plate appearances.

Votto is making $25 million this season and has one more guaranteed year in 2023, also at $25 million, on his 10-year, $240-million contract.

With fans already upset about the offseason cost-cutting moves, Reds president Phil Castellini inflamed the situation during an appearance on WLW-AM in Cincinnati the day of the home opener. He basically taunted the fans by saying ownership could always move the team to another city.

“Well, where are you going to go? Let’s start there. I mean, sell the team to who?” Castellini said. “That’s the other thing — you want to have this debate? If you want to look at what would you do with this team to have it be more profitable, make more money, compete more in the current economic system that this game exists? It would be to pick it up and move it somewhere else.”

Castellini later apologized.

Caught in the middle of it all is soft-spoken manager David Bell, in his fourth season on the job. Despite Sunday’s excruciating loss, he sees rays of hope, such as the Reds winning six of 10 games since the 3-22 start, including taking two of three from the Pirates and Brewers in back-to-back series.

Bell also admits to using some psychology in his effort to keep things positive in such a negative start to a season.

“We are just completely diving into each day’s game and talking about how we can get better each day instead of worrying how we’re going to make up for the games we’ve already lost,” he said. “We’re taking it one pitch at a time like you’re playing the most important playoff game in that moment. If you do that, it’s really easier to start thinking things are going to get better for us. And they are.”