Reds look to regain momentum in Wild Card race after being swept by Royals

CINCINNATI -- Reds momentum? What Reds momentum?

The Reds were feeling very much back in the National League Wild Card race after completing a three-game sweep of the Cardinals on Wednesday. Then, the Royals came to town.

Sunday afternoon's 8-1 loss to Kansas City at Great American Ball Park completed a three-game series sweep where Cincinnati was outscored, 28-3.

"The way I look at it is we got some pretty good feedback from a good team on where we stood in terms of executing what we needed to do," catcher Luke Maile said. "We’re going to kind of have to take that information that the Royals just gave us and do something about it. Because if we don’t, we’re going to keep on spinning our wheels kind of where we are. We know that. It’s a challenge for us."

Against St. Louis, the Reds' offense compiled 19 runs, including 10 home runs, as the team reached one game below .500 for the first time since June.

The bats went dark against the Royals with one run scored in each game. Jeimer Candelario hit the only homer for Cincinnati all weekend, and it came during Saturday's game when Kansas City was up by 13 runs.

The Reds are 60-64 with 38 games remaining and six games back of Atlanta from the final NL Wild Card spot. To reach 84 wins -- which was enough to get the Marlins and Diamondbacks their Wild Card spots in 2023 -- Cincinnati must go 24-14 for a .632 winning percentage.

But the Reds have often followed good series with rough ones. After sweeping the Dodgers at home in late May, they dropped the next series to the Cardinals. After sweeping the Yankees in New York in early July, the Reds were swept at home by the Tigers.

“The record reflects that. We just haven’t executed at a high enough level," Maile said. "Really what we’re talking about is consistency. We just haven’t executed at a high enough level consistently enough, and that’s where we find ourselves now.”

Where do the Reds need better execution?

“Defense would probably be No. 1. If you just play sound defense, you’re always going to be in the fight, it seems like," Maile said of his club that made three errors on Saturday and one Friday. "From an offensive standpoint when we don’t play good, we just chase out of the zone a lot. There’s really nothing else to say other than that. We don’t swing at enough strikes, and we swing at too many balls.”

There was one chance to change the game in the seventh inning when the Reds loaded the bases with one out against reliever Sam Long. Jonathan India drew a walk to force home a run. Right-hander Lucas Erceg took over and got Elly De La Cruz with a low changeup for a called strike three. Spencer Steer struck out swinging to end the inning.

De La Cruz finished the series 1-for-11 while Steer was 1-for-9.

Reds left-handed starter Andrew Abbott completed five innings on Sunday, giving up four runs on six hits with one intentional walk and four strikeouts.

Abbott's first two innings were scoreless, but a 45-minute rain delay during the bottom of the second inning didn't help. With the bullpen used heavily on Saturday, Abbott was determined to keep pitching and stayed loose by riding an exercise bike, throwing weighted balls inside and eventually threw in the bullpen.

“I was able to hold them to four. I wanted it to be less," Abbott said. "But to hold them to four and give us a chance to come back and win, was basically all you can wish for in that situation.”

In the third inning, Vinnie Pasquantino lined an RBI single into right field and Bobby Witt Jr. scored on Salvador Perez's sacrifice fly.

In the fifth inning, Dairon Blanco led off with a first-pitch homer to center field. Maikel Garcia followed with a double, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Pasquantino to make it 4-0.

“It’s not exactly how you want to come off a sweep of a division rival," Abbott said. "We know we have to be better. That’s the key thing. Staying true to who we are. We are playing some tough teams down the stretch, but we know we can play better than what we showcased this weekend.”

Adding to the Reds rough weekend was All-Star starter Hunter Greene going on the injured list with a sore right elbow.

“We’ve been in this situation before; all of our players have," Reds manager David Bell said. "It’s the challenge of the baseball season. We’re focused on preparing for the Blue Jays tomorrow. We still have a long way to go.”