CINCINNATI -- Hunter Greene became the latest victim of Cincinnati’s slumping offense on Friday night.

For the second time this season, the Reds were held hitless outside Elly De La Cruz, going a woeful 2-for-29 in a 3-0 loss to Baltimore after a two-hour, 41-minute rain delay.

De La Cruz was 2-for-4 with a single and a double, but the rest of the lineup could do nothing against lefty Cole Irvin. The shortstop single-handedly kept the Reds from being no-hit after doing the same on April 17 with his solo homer in Seattle providing the only offense in a 5-1 loss.

“We’ve just got to keep working, continue with our process, continue to make adjustments and work through it, continue to swing it and continue to look for our pitches to hit, ” Reds manager David Bell said. “All the things that we do, we have to stay with it.

“When there's adjustments to be made, we make them. But for the most part, continue to just believe in who we are individually and as a collective offense. We know what we're capable of. We're going to get there.”

The Reds’ team average dropped to .214 after Friday night. They have faced three of the top seven pitching staffs by ERA in the last two weeks in Seattle, Philadelphia and now Baltimore.

“Of course we face good pitching and we're going to continue to face good pitching the rest of the year, hopefully for months to come or playing important games against good teams with good pitching,” Bell added. “We know that, so of course that's a part of it. We have to find a way to succeed for sure in those situations.”

The Reds were shut out for the third time in 11 games and the second straight time at home.

It was bad timing for Cincinnati’s Friday night starter who ran his scoreless innings streak to a career-best 14 2/3 innings.

“You continue to trust your guys, understanding each individual and their work ethic and their approach to the game,” Greene said. “You put your most trust into all of them.”

Greene blanked the Orioles for 5 2/3 innings Friday, fanning five while throwing a season-high 109 pitches (71 strikes).

“It was just me checking myself after the first inning,” Greene said. “I couldn't get it done in the second inning. I just continued to tell myself, ‘Hey, if you want to go at least five or six, you’ve got to bring this pitch count down.’ So obviously I was still making good pitches on the corners and they're fouling it off.

“I gotta be able to hit the corners and get a swing and miss or grounder, but I'm still hitting the corners.”

Greene wasn’t perfect, issuing four walks and working around a one-out, second-and-third jam in the opening inning. Greene worked around two-on jams in the first, fifth and sixth -- with the help of Fernando Cruz in the last one.

Greene allowed the leadoff man to reach in four of the six innings.

“I think he understands himself,” Bell said. “He understands who he's facing. He's preparing and knows what he needs to do. And in game, being able to make those adjustments. It's not a script. You go out there and compete and you play the game, and I’ve seen that a lot with him.”

It was his fourth straight start without allowing a home run. As a matter of fact, the flame-throwing right-hander has only allowed a home run in one of his seven starts this season, when he allowed two to Milwaukee on April 10.

But Emilio Pagán could not hold Baltimore in the seventh, allowing three runs on four hits.

The three-run seventh felt like an avalanche on Cincinnati, which had 17 straight batters retired following De La Cruz’s first-inning single.

De La Cruz doubled off Irvin to open the seventh. After Irvin fanned Spencer Steer, reliever Yennier Cano retired Tyler Stephenson and Christian Encarnacion-Strand on groundouts to end the inning.