Few answers, more questions for reeling Cincinnati Reds after sixth straight losing series

PHOENIX — The more games the Cincinnati Reds play during this west coast road trip, the more questions they seem to raise about their ballclub.

For instance, did anyone know before Tuesday that they had enough healthy big-league hitters to give their two best ones, Spencer Steer and Elly De La Cruz, each a day off on back-to-back days against the Arizona Diamondbacks?

Maybe that’s why De La Cruz seemed so surprised to be out of the lineup Wednesday for the series finale in Arizona, And not looking happy about it. 

And that was before an eventual 2-1 loss to finish off the Reds' six consecutive losing series.

“What can I say? He’s the boss. I can’t say anything,” said De La Cruz, whose goal was to play all 162 this year and said he wasn’t tired or otherwise needed a day off in the middle of May.

De La Cruz eventually got into that game as a pinch hitter and led off the eighth by grounding out to first, then stayed in the game at shortstop.

Lineup lacking some of hottest hitters

By then plenty of other questions were being raised by a struggling lineup that had been shut down repeatedly over the past three weeks until a modest splurge in recent days. And they lost one more for a day just before game time, when second baseman Jonathan India was scratched because of a migraine.

For instance, who had the more effective no-hit stuff on this day: Diamondbacks pitcher Brandon Pfaadt or the Reds lineup?

It was the impossible question to answer for most of Wednesday’s game in Arizona — an immovable object against an unstoppable force for 4 2/3 no-hit innings with Pfaadt on the mound.

Reds pitcher Andrew Abbott matched Pfaadt zero for scoreboard zero for the seven innings each pitched.

The first hit off Pfaadt — Santiago Espinal’s two-out home run in the fifth — tied this one after Christian Walker had given the Diamondbacks a 1-0 lead on a leadoff homer in the second.

Pfaadt gave up only one more hit, a one-out double to Jeimer Candelario in the seventh.

And then came the other question that’s been nagging this team for weeks: Why do they keep using Fernando Cruz — one of the greatest escape artists in the game when taking over somebody else’s jam — with the bases empty? And/or why is Cruz such a different pitcher when he starts a clean inning compared to when taking over in the highest leverage situations?

Back-to-back two-out doubles by Pavin Smith and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. in the eighth against Cruz sunk the Reds — who went 1-2-3 in the ninth.

Cruz not same pitcher starting inning

That was the 10th time in 19 appearances Cruz has entered to start an inning. He’s given up eight earned runs and walked 10 in those appearances, spanning 9 1/3 innings (7.71 ERA).

In the nine appearances (8 2/3 innings) he’s entered with men on base, he has allowed only three of 17 inherited runners to score, struck out 18, walked only one and has a 1.04 ERA. In three of that past four of those clean innings he started, he retired the first two batters before giving up runs.

“He threw strikes. Got behind to Smith and he had a good swing on it,” manager David Bell said. “They got two hits and win the game. Cruz is going to continue to be good for us.”

All of it added up to a 12th loss in 14 games – 15th in 19 – for a team that actually has one of the best-performing starting rotations in the majors (3.84 ERA, top-six WAR).

They fell to 1-10 in one-run games.

“I’d rather be in it and be competitive like we have been than the alternative, right?” catcher Luke Maile said. “We’re playing fine. We just obviously have to win games. That’s the important thing in this league. We understand that.

“We talk about process a lot. We played a really clean series this week,” he said. “If we keep on executing the way we did, we’re going to be fine.”