The Cincinnati Reds just made baseball history for all the wrong reasons. They’ve become the first team in 65 years to lose three straight games by the exact same score: 1-0.
Thursday night’s defeat to the Milwaukee Brewers continued their frustrating offensive drought.
The Reds managed just two measly hits against the Brewers. Only one came off Milwaukee starter Nestor Cortes, who bounced back nicely after struggling in his season debut against his former team, the Yankees.
Cincinnati’s offense has been ice cold. They scraped together just three walks and had one player reach base on an error.
The tough part? Reds starter Nick Lodolo pitched really well. He gave up just one run on four hits with no walks through 6 ⅔ innings. But when your team doesn’t score, even one run is too many.
During this three-game skid, the Reds have averaged just three hits per game.
Their previous two losses came against the Texas Rangers, where pitchers Nathan Eovaldi and Jack Leiter combined to shut them out for 14 innings while allowing only seven hits total.
This slump has dropped Cincinnati to 2-5 this season. Oddly enough, they still have a positive run differential (+4), suggesting they’ve been competitive in their wins but just can’t score lately.
They’re currently sitting three games behind the NL Central-leading St. Louis Cardinals, though it’s way too early in the season to worry about standings.
The last team to suffer through three straight 1-0 losses was the 1960 Philadelphia Phillies. Before that, you’d have to go all the way back to baseball’s Dead Ball Era (1900-1920) to find similar streaks, with the 1917 Pittsburgh Pirates, 1909 Washington Nationals, 1909 St. Louis Browns, and 1908 Brooklyn Superbas all experiencing the same frustration.
Here’s the scary part: no team in MLB history has ever lost four straight games by a 1-0 score.
The Reds will try to avoid making that kind of history when they face the Brewers again on Friday. Nick Martinez is set to take the mound against Tyler Alexander.
Maybe they’ll finally score a run?
