RED VISIT CLEVELAND AFTER HISTORIC LOSS
Cincinnati 9-26 after losing a game in which it didn’t allow a hit.
Hunter Greene summed up a historic but sad day for the Cincinnati Reds with a sentence that could describe the whole season to this point.
“It is what it is,” Greene said in a postgame interview with Jim Day on Bally Sports Ohio.
Greene threw 7⅓ hitless innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates but left the game with one out in the eighth after walking two batters. Reliever Art Warren replaced him and got out of the inning without allowing a hit but gave up an RBI fielder’s choice groundout, which brought in the game’s only run. That’s how the Reds became the sixth team in baseball history to lose a game in which they didn’t allow a hit.
This was the latest stain on the resume for a team that started 3-22 and is now 9-26 after splitting four games in Pittsburgh.
“Obviously, we want to do everything we can to win the game, and that’s the main goal,” manager David Bell told Day,
“but that doesn’ttake away from how special of a day that was for Hunter Greene and Art Warren.”
It was a special day in a forgettable season. Here’s where the Reds stand more than a fifth of the way into the 162-game schedule.
Worst record: The Reds are the only team in baseball with a winning percentage (.257) worse than .300. The next-worst record, through Sunday, belonged to the Washington Nationals (12-24, .333). The Kansas City Royals (1220, .375) and Detroit Tigers (1223, .343) are also competing to be baseball’s worst team.
Biggest deficit: The Reds won two of three games against the Milwaukee Brewers last week at Great American Ball Park but trail
the first-place Brewers (2213) by 13 games. The Boston Red Sox (13-21), who trail the New York Yankees (25-9) by 12 games, face the second-biggest deficit in a division race.
More bad history: The Reds, who were off Monday and start a two-game series on the road today against the Cleveland Guardians, have their second-worst record through 35 games. The 1931, 1934 and 2018 Reds were all 8-27.
The 2018 Reds won six games in a row after losing their 27th game. The 1931 Reds fell to 8-30 and 9-32 before winning eight of nine games. The 1934 Reds fell to 8-27 and then 9-32.
Even more bad history: The Reds are tied for the 22nd worst record in baseball history through 35 games with 11 other teams that started 9-26. In this century, only the 2018 Reds, 2018 Baltimore Orioles and 2003 Detroit Tigers — all of whom were 8-27 — have been worse.