The Cincinnati Reds couldn’t correct their downward spiral while on the road, so they will try to level things out when they start a six-game homestand against the equally struggling Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday.
The Reds have lost six of their last seven games, most recently falling 5-4 against the San Diego Padres on Wednesday afternoon in the decisive contest of a three-game series.
Cincinnati has fallen three games under .500 after climbing as high as nine games over at the end of April.
“The results are not what we want,” Reds manager Terry Francona said. “There’s no getting around that. I’m not going to sit here and say a month ago, ‘I love these guys,’ and now we’ve lost some games that I hate them, because that’s not how I feel. We’re going to struggle, and we’re going to struggle together. We’re going to figure it out together.”
One area that needs to improve is the bullpen.
Cincinnati relievers owned the majors’ fifth-best ERA through the end of April (3.44) but currently rank 29th (5.13).
“Just got to keep making pitches,” Reds reliever Caleb Ferguson said. “It takes a really long year to have a bad year, and it takes a really long year to have a good year. You’re allowed to have skids in this game and they’re going to happen. You just got to get out of them.
“The beauty of it is, I think we’re really, really close. In a lot of these games, we’re two to three pitches from winning all these games.”
The Diamondbacks didn’t get off to as good a start to the season as the Reds, but they also have hit tough times. Arizona was shut out on both Wednesday and Thursday by the Miami Marlins and has lost five of its past six overall to drop back to .500 for the first time since May 18.
The Diamondbacks haven’t won a series since sweeping the San Francisco Giants May 25-27 to improve to 31-24.
Arizona plans to start Eduardo Rodriguez (5-2, 2.52 ERA) in the opener of the three-game series against Cincinnati.
The left-hander still ranks fifth in the National League in ERA despite taking the loss in his most recent outing. Rodriguez surrendered four runs and six hits in 6 1/3 innings during a 6-1 loss to the Washington Nationals on Saturday.
After giving up two runs in the first, Rodriguez threw five scoreless innings before going back out for the seventh. He then allowed a solo home run to Dylan Crews and a one-out triple to Jacob Young, who scored after Rodriguez departed.
“Maybe I could have clipped him an at-bat earlier,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said, “but I wanted him to work through it and just get him back in the dugout with a chance to win the game.”
Rodriguez has faced the Reds three times in his career, going 1-1 with a 3.00 ERA.
The Reds plan to start left-hander Nick Lodolo on Friday.
Lodolo (2-1, 5.51 ERA) did not receive a decision in his most recent outing after allowing four runs and 10 hits in five-plus innings against the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday.
Lodolo has made one start in his career against Arizona. He wound up with a no-decision after permitting three runs in six innings on June 6, 2025.
–Field Level Media
