ST. LOUIS – The lineup that carried the Cincinnati Reds for much of the season is now one of the main reasons why they can’t gain any ground in the wild-card race.
Another left-handed starting pitcher spelled trouble for the Reds' offense. They were shut out for the first time since July 21 in their 2-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday, dropping two of three games at Busch Stadium.
It’s been three weeks – 22 days – since the Reds won a series, dropping six in a row. That's a lifetime in a playoff race. They’ve lost 12 of their last 18 games, but they remain tied with the San Diego Padres for the second spot in the wild-card race after the Padres were swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
"We're not down on ourselves at all," said Jonathan India, who had one of the Reds' five hits. "We're going to come through, I know we are. I know we're going to make that playoff spot. At the end of this, we're going to laugh at these losses. So, we'll be fine."
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The Reds have 18 games remaining in the regular season after Monday's off-day, and nine are against the last-place Pittsburgh Pirates. They'll need to win most of them with the Cardinals only one game behind them in the standings.
It should be a major scheduling advantage compared to the Padres (10 games left vs. San Francisco Giants) and Cardinals (seven games left vs. Milwaukee Brewers), but the Reds haven’t won back-to-back games in more than two weeks.
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"If you play well the rest of the way, you’re going to be the team," Reds manager David Bell said, "and you’re going to take that momentum into the postseason. That’s really where our focus is."
For the second straight day, Nolan Arenado was the difference. The All-Star hit a two-run homer in the first inning and Cardinals pitchers did the rest in front of 32,872 fans.
Sonny Gray rebounded from the first-inning homer by Arenado and was excellent afterward. Gray gave up three hits across seven innings, walking one and striking out six.
It's been an up-and-down year for Gray as he battled injuries, but he's pitching his best during the most important time in the season. Gray has permitted three or fewer hits in each of his last five starts, posting a 1.80 ERA during this stretch.
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The issue Sunday was run support. The Reds were neutralized by 38-year-old lefty J.A. Happ, the same pitcher they scored seven runs against in one-plus innings on Sept. 1. They produced two hits in 5 1/3 innings and didn’t have a runner touch third base against him.
"He was using his sinker really well," India said. "The first time he was leaving balls in the zone for us, but today he didn't give in. He was pitching around the zone. He had us swinging at balls, so props to him."
Said Happ: "To be honest, I really haven't slept great since the last time I faced those guys."
Happ stranded two runners (an error and two-out single) in the third inning. He issued a leadoff walk to Nick Castellanos in the fourth and retired the next seven batters.
The Reds stack their lineup with righties against left-handed pitchers, but they aren’t receiving consistent production outside the top of the lineup. Eugenio Suárez, Aristides Aquino, Cabrera and Delino DeShields combined to hit 0-for-8 against Happ. Joey Votto, the one lefty in the lineup, struck out three times.
"We have guys on this team that can hit," Bell said. "They’ve shown that. They’ve proved it. I trust that. Clearly, we didn’t score today. We understand that, but we just keep working. We continue to compete. They hit the ball hard and it’s going to turn around. It’s easy to say that when you’re around these guys and trust this group like I do."
During the past week, the Reds haven’t scored more than four runs in a game. They had a 2-4 record in their six games against the Chicago Cubs and Cardinals to begin their nine-game road trip.
"Am I surprised?" India said. "Yeah, because we're a dangerous offense. We didn't have all of our guys, some guys have gotten hurt and we've had some switches in the order. It's getting late in the year and we're all battling. That's what it is. We'll be fine. I know we will."
The lack of runs means there is no margin for error for the pitching staff. Tyler O’Neill hit a first-pitch single through the left side of the infield with two outs in the first inning. Arenado, the next batter, clubbed a two-run homer to the front of the third deck in left field, his 31st home run of the season.
"It was a 2-0 heater," Gray said. "I’m trying to go in and I yank it just a little bit on the plate. It was just one pitch. I wouldn’t have done anything different. Just one pitch seemed to get us today.”
Following Arenado's homer, Gray retired his next 14 batters with six groundouts, three flyouts, three strikeouts and two lineouts.
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The Cardinals were determined to swing early in the count against Gray. He didn’t throw a ton of first-pitch strikes, but he reached only one three-ball count in his first five innings. He induced weak contact with a heavy mix of sinkers.
Gray had to face the middle of the Cardinals lineup with two runners on base in the sixth inning after a jam shot single by Tommy Edman and a four-pitch walk to Paul Goldschmidt. He struck out O'Neill on a full-count fastball and he induced a flyout versus Arenado.
"It’s not like they beat the ball around," Gray said. "They didn’t hit a ball hard at all. I just kept thinking ‘you’re in control. You’re in control. You make this happen. You’re in control of the outcome of this.’ And that was it.”
Gray pitched well enough to win. He completed seven innings for the fourth time this year. He’s allowed six runs and 12 hits in his last 30 innings.
Still, it wasn’t enough to improve the Reds’ playoff chances.
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