2 big wins, 2 shutout losses: Reds cap inconsistent set in St. Louis

ST. LOUIS -- What a weird series. What a missed opportunity.

The Reds’ offense operated with a contrasting duality all weekend in St. Louis as big blowout wins were followed by shutout defeats.

Sunday's four-game series finale at Busch Stadium ended with Cincinnati being handed a 2-0 loss by the Cardinals, the club's seventh shutout loss of the year. The Reds have lost 10 of their last 15 games and haven’t won a series in their past six tries.

“I’m looking at all areas of our game, like I do every day, to find ways to improve in every area,” Reds manager David Bell said. “I know two of the games in this series were our inability to score, so we just have to figure out how we can get better in these situations, and we’re going to do that. We’ll continue to work and stay confident and find a way to improve so we can be more consistent.”

Here's a quick review of the Reds' offensive output from this series:

• Thursday -- an 11-4 win with 16 hits
• Friday -- a 1-0 loss with four hits
• Saturday -- a 9-4 win with 13 hits
• Sunday -- a 2-0 loss with two hits

Up and down like a rollercoaster that isn't anywhere near as enjoyable for Reds fans as The Beast at Kings Island. Second baseman Jonathan India noted his concern about the offensive inconsistency following Friday’s shutout loss:

“We can’t keep doing what we’re doing,” said India, who extended his hitting streak to 12 games on Sunday, including his eighth straight game with a double.

Cardinals starter Lance Lynn and three relievers did their job to quiet the Reds; besides India's double, the only other hit the Reds mustered was a Stuart Fairchild single.

“Lance Lynn, you know he’s going to come right at you with the fastball. He did that again today,” Bell said. “We did put some good swings on the ball and hit some balls hard for outs. But not enough to be able to score.”

Reds starter Hunter Greene avoided the stomach issues that led him to vomiting in each of his previous two starts. Although he was often effective, Greene needed 95 pitches to get through 4 2/3 innings while allowing four hits and two walks with six strikeouts.

“I don't really want to talk about any of that stuff; it’s in the past,” Greene said about not getting sick again. “But I felt fantastic today.”

The Cardinals got to Greene in the bottom of the fifth inning as Pedro Pagés led off with a single. Back-to-back one-out singles, including Alec Burleson’s hit to right field, scored Pagés to make it a 1-0 game.

Greene then hit Willson Conteras on the arm with a 97 mph fastball to load the bases. Contreras stared down Greene before heading to first base and the two men exchanged words. Just as Reds infielders started getting between them, order was quickly restored without an incident.

“Just fun. And I was ready,” Greene said about the situation. “I haven’t been in that position in the big leagues yet. I was kind of waiting for it. It was fun.”

With two outs and lefty hitter Brendan Donovan batting with the bases loaded, Bell pulled Greene for lefty reliever Sam Moll. Donovan grounded out to first base to end the inning.

“I wanted to go deeper for sure. But [Bell] said on the mound he trusts Sam as much as me,” Greene said. “And I think that was a strong statement, because he’s been fantastic, and obviously he was able to get that last out for me and came up huge.”

The offense could not boost Greene or Moll with run support -- for the 39-45 Reds, their two losses on the weekend by a combined three runs blew another chance to make up ground against a division rival. The second-place Cardinals (43-40) are now 4 1/2 games ahead of Cincinnati, which trails the first-place Brewers by 11 games.

Of the last six winless series, four have come against divisional opponents in Milwaukee, Pittsburgh (twice) and now, St. Louis.

“We’re one game at a time, one pitch at a time,” Bell said. “They’re all equal. We’ll take that approach to the end. Play every game like it’s a playoff game. Winning series and our record at the end will take care of itself.”