Reds fall to 7-23 with second straight loss to Brewers

Bailey 0-4 after allowing five runs in five innings

Thirty games into the season, the Cincinnati Reds have won seven games. That puts them on pace to win 37 by the end of the season.

Needless to say, they probably won’t reach that level of futility. No team has won fewer than 40 games since Major League Baseball expanded to a 162-game season in 1961.

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However, anything’s possible the way this season is going. The Reds rallied from an early 3-0 deficit but lost 7-6 to the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday at Great American Ball Park, falling by one run for the second straight night as their record dipped to 7-23.

This was the eighth one-run loss for the Reds.

“That was a tough one,” interim manager Jim Riggleman said. “A lot of good things are happening. We’re playing some good baseball, and at times we have some lapses. I feel we’ve been down three or four runs going back to the series in Minnesota and even before that against Atlanta. It was a great effort to come back. We’re just not quite getting over the hump. That’s where we are right now. That’s why we are in the standings where we are, but we are going to get out of it.”

Big picture: The Reds are tied with the 1931 and 1934 Reds for the franchise's worst record through 30 games. They are one of 23 teams in baseball since 1900 to start 7-23 or worse.

Slumping starter: Homer Bailey gave up a season-high five earned runs on six hits in five innings. His ERA climbed to 4.81. Bailey has allowed 15 earned runs in his last four starts.

Early power: The Brewers hit back-to-back home runs against Bailey in the first inning. Travis Shaw hit a two-run home run, and Jesus Aguilar followed with a home run.

“That first one was a split I left over the plate,” Bailey said. “The other one I made the pitch I wanted to. I shouldn’t have thrown it there. That was maybe a lack of preparation. I should have done away there.”

First start: Rosell Herrera started at second base for the Reds. It was his first career start. He recorded his first career hit, a lead-off single in the second.

Big inning: The Reds answered the Brewers with three runs of their own in the first. The last two scored on a home run by Eugenio Suarez. It was his third home run of the season, and he took the team lead in RBIs with 16. He added an RBI in the seventh with a sacrifice fly.

In six games since he came off the disabled list, Suarez is hitting .360 with 10 RBIs.

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Back on top: The Brewers took a 5-3 lead with a two-run double by Ryan Braun in the fifth. The Brewers added a run in the sixth. A solo home run by Hernan Perez against Amir Garrett in the seventh proved to be the game-winning RBI.

Career first: Alex Blandino hit his first career home run in the eighth, cutting Milwaukee's lead to 7-6.

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