2 weeks Ago
MILWAUKEE — Here’s a recap of the Cincinnati Reds’ scoring since Elly De La Cruz’s second home run of Monday’s rout of the Texas Rangers: Zero. Zilch. Nada.
Nothing. Nil. Thursday night, for the third straight game, the Reds were unable to get a run across the plate while allowing their opponent to score just one run.
This time, it was the Milwaukee Brewers who scored one run as lefty Nick Lodolo was the hard-luck loser, allowing only an unearned run on four hits with no walks and four strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings. Advertisement The Reds are just the sixth team in major-league history to lose three consecutive games by a score of 1-0. The last team to do that was the 1960 Philadelphia Phillies, who finished last in the eight-team National League.
No team has ever lost four straight 1-0 games. It was the Reds’ 13th 1-0 loss since 2020, the most of any team in that span, three more than the Atlanta Braves (10). The only teams in the Live Ball Era (since 1920) to lose three consecutive games by a score of 1-0: – 1960 Phillies – 2025 Reds pic.
twitter.com/lWVelkSK0E — MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) April 4, 2025 Thursday’s lone run came in the fourth inning after Brewers leadoff man Jackson Chourio doubled for the Brewers’ first hit of the day. Chourio advanced to third after an error by Lodolo allowed William Contreras to reach.
After a popup for the second out, Sal Frelick singled in Chourio, giving the Brewers the lone run needed to top the dormant Reds offense. “It’s part of the game, you know?” Lodolo said of having so little room for error with the team’s offensive struggles. “I’ll be honest with you, I’m obviously watching the score, but I’m not thinking about it.
I’ve got to do my job at the end of the day, regardless. We’ll turn it around. I guarantee you that.
” Reds starters have a 2.06 ERA over seven starts and a minuscule 0.69 WHIP, the best mark in baseball.
But they also have a 2-4 record and the team is 2-5 to start the season. “They’re trying their ass off, maybe too hard,” Reds manager Terry Francona said. “They’re fighting.
We’re not going to have a situation when it’s ‘us’ when we win and it’s ‘them’ when we lose. We’ll do this together and we’ll figure it out together. Nobody’s happy with what’s happened the last three games.
We’ll figure it out together. I feel strongly about that.” Advertisement After dropping two 1-0 games to the Rangers, the Reds looked to be getting a favorable matchup against veteran lefty Nestor Cortes, whose Brewers debut yielded an unprecedented three home runs on the first three pitches Saturday against the New York Yankees.
Not only did the Reds fail to homer off of the 30-year-old Cortes, the team managed just one hit off him in his six innings. The only hit the Reds had off of Cortes was a third-inning double from his former battery mate with the Yankees, catcher Jose Trevino. “I thought he was using his cutter pretty well and he was locating his fastball, too,” Trevino said.
“(He was) mixing in his changeup, as well. You know, he was good tonight.” The Reds managed just one more hit in the game, a Jeimer Candelario single with one out in the seventh.
Pinch hitter Gavin Lux followed with a walk, but two straight flyouts ended that threat. Matt McLain reached second on a two-base error with two outs in the eighth, but De La Cruz grounded out to end the inning, just as he did to end the game the previous two nights. Any hopes for a ninth-inning comeback were quickly deflated when Chourio, who moved from right field to left to start the ninth, made a diving play to rob Christian Encarnacion-Strand of a hit.
Candelario flew out and then Lux struck out looking to end the game. “Baseball’s a cruel sport,” Lux said. “When it’s going bad, that just kind of seems like how it always goes.
But, you know, the good thing about it is we get to play again tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that.” As Lux noted, there are 155 games to go, so it’s not as if the season is over. One of the favorites in the National League (the Braves) has yet to win a game.
The Colorado Rockies have seen their starting pitchers put up a 1.35 ERA through their first six games, yet they have just one win to show for it. Advertisement “To be totally honest, 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’ll all switch at some point. We’re going to need them and they’re going to need us.
At some point, we’re all going to be together. That’s just how the baseball season goes.” The Reds will score again.
That much is certain. But until that happens, the question will be when and will it be enough to actually win a game? “I know these guys already,” Francona said. “I know they’re trying their ass off, and that’s what I think being a manager is — caring about your guys and believing in them and not just being a front-runner.
I won’t do that.” (Photo of Jeimer Candelario: Michael McLoone / Imagn Images).
