MILWAUKEE – If this season were a boxing match, the tomato-can Reds from Cincinnati would have been counted out months ago.
But in baseball they make you play all 162 rounds no matter how many body blows and uppercuts land. Or how many times your face hits the canvas.
So when the Milwaukee Brewers spent the past two nights batting around, rattling the pitching staff's teeth and knocking down the Reds again and again, it was tempting to wonder if the Reds' season had hit bottom with 13 games to play.
Because the way this road trip has gone, it sure looks like the Reds have fallen and they can't get up.
No?
After losing 14-1 in Los Angeles, followed by a 20-0 loss in the series opener in Milwaukee, the Reds allowed 13 more runs Saturday (Sept. 12)
to the Brewers – the first time in available franchise history they've allowed at least 13 runs in three consecutive games.
Oof.
After falling behind 4-0 in the first, the Reds eventually tied it, let it get away again, then rallied for four runs in the eighth for a 13-9 final score in the latest loss, which did little to make the breakdowns and pitching problems look any better during a winless road trip against the top two teams in the majors.
Brady Singer was the starter in this one for the Reds, giving up a walk and home run to the first two batter he faced, then doing it again with the fifth and sixth batters he faced to trail 4-0.
He gave up three more in the fourth after the Reds had tied it and departed at 95 pitches. Enter Graham Ashcraft. And five more Brewers runs.
All that was left was the final tally.
And two of the numbers in that tally say about all that needs to be said about where this last-place team stands these days in relation to the best teams in the league.
Their five-game losing streak to start this trip has dropped them to a season-worst 10 games under .500 (three more losses clinches a losing season the year after they made the playoffs).
And this: In 1901, the Redlegs gave up 60 runs in a four-game span in September.
Depending on which three-game span you pull from that foursome, it's either 50 or 51 allowed over three games.
That's the last time they've allowed as many in three games as they have these past three (47).
One hundred, 25 years ago.
Oof.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Reds make wrong kind of history in another high-scoring loss
