'We have to be better': Cincy bats can't back Martinez's quality start

CINCINNATI -- Reaching a .500 record has eluded the Reds for more than three months. They remained outside of the velvet rope still waiting to get there on Friday night for a familiar reason.

Despite a quality start from Nick Martinez, Cincinnati again found offensive production hard to come by -- with only four hits -- while being handed a 7-1 loss by the Royals at Great American Ball Park that snapped a four-game winning streak.

The Reds (60-62), now four games back from the final National League Wild Card spot, missed reaching .500 for the first time since May 3 -- when they were 16-16.

“I couldn’t even tell you our record," said Martinez, who allowed three runs on eight hits with no walks and four strikeouts over six innings. "We’re just trying to win the game in front of us and see where we’re at down the stretch.

“I think if we cross that threshold, we’re a pretty dangerous team."

During their three-game sweep of the Cardinals, the Reds scored 19 runs with 10 home runs. An off-day followed on Thursday.

"You almost don’t want an off-day there, because you can keep rolling," Martinez said.

Despite that nice series, Cincinnati remains the worst-hitting club in the NL with a .230 average.

“It hurts. All the momentum we had with St. Louis [is gone], but tomorrow’s a new day, and hope we can find that [momentum again] and have a chance to win the series by getting the next two [games]," said catcher Tyler Stephenson, who had two doubles in the game for half of the Reds’ hit total.

Indeed there are two games remaining in the series against Kansas City, and a chance to win it, but the math for a playoff berth isn't getting friendlier for Cincinnati.

There are 40 games remaining on the regular season schedule. The Reds would have to play .625 baseball while going 25-15 just to reach 85 wins. That still doesn't take into account what other NL Wild Card contenders do down the stretch.

“For us to get to where we want to be, we have to be better than [.500]," Stephenson said. "I had no idea what our record was, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what the record is if we take care of the games we know we’re supposed to.

“Our record is going to take care of itself and be what it’s going to be.”

Martinez opened the night by retiring the first nine hitters he faced to extend his scoreless streak to 15 innings. That ended in the fourth inning, when Bobby Witt Jr. hit a one-out solo home run to left field.

In the top of the sixth inning, Witt led off with a double and Vinnie Pasquantino followed with a single. Witt scored on Salvador Perez's infield single to shortstop. Elly De La Cruz couldn't get a force play throw to second base on time and everybody was safe.

With two outs and one strike from getting out of the inning, Martinez's 1-2 changeup to Adam Frazier was hit to right field for an RBI single that made it a 3-0 game.

“The one thing I wish I could have taken back was executing the pitch to Frazier," Martinez said. "The other stuff -- Pasquantino hit a cutter up and in. I still executed that pitch and he did a good job of fighting it off. A good piece of hitting by him and a good piece of hitting by Bobby to start that inning.”

Former Reds pitcher Michael Lorenzen, playing at GABP for the first time since 2021, turned in a strong performance for the Royals with one run and two hits over 5 2/3 innings.

It was Stephenson's two-out RBI double to left-center field that plated Cincinnati's lone run.

“We know how good [Lorenzen] can be. We just weren’t able to get anything going tonight," manager David Bell said.

The game got away from reliever Fernando Cruz, who pitched a second inning in the ninth and allowed four runs -- including a three-run homer by Pasquantino.

This is familiar territory for the Reds, who haven’t followed up big series wins or sweeps with sustained success. It happened in early July after they swept the Yankees in the Bronx -- only to be swept in the next series at home vs. the Tigers.

After winning two games at Atlanta in late July, Cincinnati dropped two of three in the next series at Tampa Bay while scoring four runs in three games.

"We look forward to coming in and playing our best baseball, and doing everything we can to get back into this thing," Bell said. "We had some momentum coming into tonight."