The Cincinnati Reds go for their first winning streak of the season when they continue a three-game road series against the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday night.
The Reds recorded just their fourth win of the young campaign in the series opener Monday, riding Hunter Greene’s 8 2/3 shutout innings and Blake Dunn’s tie-breaking, two-run double in the eighth.
The Reds won one of three games in an earlier home series against the Giants, but dropped a 6-3 decision in the rubber game after having won 3-2 a day earlier.
Cincinnati also has followed up single wins over Texas and Milwaukee with losses, falling 1-0 at home to the Rangers after a 14-3 win, and dropping an 8-2 road decision to the Brewers on Sunday after claiming an 11-7 victory on Saturday.
Following the opening series against the Giants in which they scored 10 runs, the Reds have been held to two runs or fewer in six of eight games, with the only exceptions coming in the wins over the Rangers and Brewers.
“We always want to be more consistent,” Spencer Steer said. “I think everyone in here is kind of fighting that right now. We’ve got to start swinging the bats. Our pitching has done great so far. They’ve kept us in a lot of these games and we haven’t been able to score runs.”
Left-hander Nick Lodolo (1-1, 1.42 ERA) has been one of those pitchers. The California native pitched six strong innings, allowing two runs, to beat the Giants 3-2 in the second game of the season at Cincinnati.
He followed that with 6 2/3 innings without allowing an earned run, but was a hard-luck loser in a 1-0 defeat at Milwaukee last Thursday.
The 27-year-old has gone 1-1 with a 4.50 ERA in two career starts against the Giants.
The Reds didn’t see right-hander Landen Roupp (0-0, 6.75) when the Giants visited to open the season. San Francisco won the 26-year-old’s season debut 6-3 at Houston last Wednesday, a game in which he did not get a decision after allowing three runs in four innings.
Eight of the 12 outs he recorded were by strikeouts.
The second-year major-leaguer has never faced the Reds.
Before Monday’s defeat, the Giants hadn’t lost since the Lodolo start in Cincinnati. But two walk-off wins in their three-game sweep of the Seattle Mariners to end last week caught up with a weary relief staff after a brilliant start by Logan Webb in the series opener against the Reds.
Dependable set-up man Tyler Rogers, who hasn’t allowed a run in five outings this season, was deemed unavailable after pitching twice in the Seattle series. So Giants manager Bob Melvin turned a scoreless tie over to Camilo Doval, the club’s former closer, in the eighth inning and watched the Reds score the game’s only two runs.
“That’s kinda his inning,” Melvin said of Rogers. “We have to spread this (bullpen) thing around a little bit. It’s early in the season.”
-Field Level Media
