The Reds sit three games below .500 this season and yet know they could be doing better than treading water. If they tried to count the games that could have turned in their favor and didn’t, they’d already be out of fingers.
Tuesday’s 2-1 Reds loss to the Padres in their three-game-series opener came on a Chase Headley home run off of Aroldis Chapman in the top of the ninth inning. But it really underscored what has plagued this club all season. Cincinnati leads the Majors with 12 one-run defeats.
It was also the sixth time the Reds’ pitching staff held an opponent to two runs or fewer in a loss. This is the second time it’s happened on starter Mike Leake’s watch after a fantastic performance on his end. Leake allowed one run and two hits over eight innings for a no-decision.
“Those ones are the ones we are very upset about as a team, because we know we’re better,” Reds catcher Brayan Pena said. “We know our pitching staff is doing a tremendous job, especially our starters. They’re doing a tremendous job to give us a chance to win ballgames. Especially a guy like Leake, he came in and gave us more than we asked for — eight strong innings and one run — and we just couldn’t hit for him today. We know we have to play better offensively. We know that we have to pick it up.”
Leake, who walked one, hit two batters and struck out five, is winless over his last five starts. That stretch includes two of his three eight-inning starts this season.
Overall in eight starts and 58 1/3 innings — whicht ranks fourth in the National League — Leake is 2-3 with a 3.09 ERA.
“He doesn’t have anything to show for it but the innings,” Reds manager Bryan Price said. “That to me says more than anything. We’re going to want to win every game that he throws when he gives us seven or eight quality innings like he has. If he can maintain this type of consistency, you’ll look at a spectacular season of well over 200 innings, but giving us a chance to win on a regular basis is what makes me happy. The tide will turn.”
The Reds pounced first on Padres starter Andrew Cashner, when Billy Hamilton led off the bottom of the first with a triple to the left-field corner. Hamilton scored on the first of Brandon Phillips’ three hits to make it 1-0. Joey Votto followed Phillips with a drive off the right-field wall, but he was thrown out at second base when Seth Smith quickly snatched up the carom.
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