Reds reliever Michael Lorenzen is one of the strongest players on the club with a fierce workout program he maintains year-round and a track record of success from the bullpen. But on the mound in 2020, Lorenzen appears to have fallen and can’t get up.

Brought in to replace starter Sonny Gray in a tie game in the sixth inning, Lorenzen faced four batters, retired none of them and departed screaming into his glove. The Brewers scored six runs during a rally to hand the Reds a 9-3 loss at Miller Park, allowing the home team to avoid a three-game series sweep.

• Box score

Through seven appearances, Lorenzen has a 16.88 ERA with 10 earned runs, nine hits, five walks and three home runs allowed through 5 1/3 innings. He’s retired the first batter he has faced twice.

“I’ve been through struggles myself. It is difficult to watch, because you know how talented he is and you know how much he cares,” said Gray, who labored as he pitched 5 1/3 innings while being charged with four earned runs on six hits and three walks to pair with seven strikeouts.

“It’s just something that he’s going to have to sit back, take a deep breath, gather himself going forward and make an adjustment from there,” Gray continued. “It’s going to have to start between the ears. He has to figure out who he wants to be, which direction he wants to go, but his talent is through the roof. I don’t think there’s any question about that. … In order for us to get where we want, where we want to go, he’s going to be a big part of it.”

• Moustakas placed on injured list

The wheels came off for Cincinnati as the Brewers -- which came into the game ranked 25th with 3.6 runs scored per game -- sent 13 men to the plate in the sixth. Justin Smoak got it rolling with a leadoff double, and Gray surrendered a pair of one-out hits, including Manny Piña’s RBI single through the middle.

Reds manager David Bell had no qualms about summoning Lorenzen in a high-leverage situation instead of leaving Gray in.

“[Lorenzen] had an outing last night where it didn't go perfect and he allowed a run,” Bell said. “We made a decision before the game that the best thing for Michael was to give him the ball again if the situation presented itself.”

But Lorenzen could not find his way, starting with a four-pitch walk to Eric Sogard, followed by Keston Hiura’s two-run single to left field and a full-count walk to Christian Yelich to reload the bases. A five-pitch walk to Logan Morrison forced home another run, and that was it for Lorenzen, who has allowed runs in six of his games.

• For Suárez, it's simply 'keep swinging'

Entering the day, Lorenzen had been susceptible to damaging contact, per Statcast metrics. Last season, he was in the 97th percentile among qualified pitchers with a 3.1 percent barrel rate on batted balls. Going into Sunday, the barrel rate was 16.7 percent and he was in the fourth percentile.

Lorenzen was a ground ball-inducing pitcher throughout his career, never hovering below 46.5 percent. But he was getting just 33.3 percent grounders in 2020 going into the day.

Otherwise, Lorenzen’s velocity, swing-and-miss rate and chase rate are almost exactly where they were in 2019.

“We all know what Michael can do,” said designated hitter Jesse Winker, who was 3-for-4 with a two-out RBI single in the first inning, a leadoff homer in the fourth and a double in the ninth. “Michael is an outstanding baseball player. Everybody here believes in Michael. He’s an outstanding teammate, outstanding person as well. He’s going to be great. He has a great track record of being outstanding. He will be outstanding.”

Relief pitching issues haven’t been limited to Lorenzen, as the bullpen has a 1-4 record and a Major League worst 7.77 ERA despite being 22nd with 48 2/3 innings.

Cody Reed replaced Lorenzen and faced four batters, walking one and giving up a hit; two of his three inherited runners scored. Reed has a 10.80 ERA in six appearances. Joel Kuhnel, who was recalled Saturday, gave up a pair of homers in the seventh to put the game out of reach in his season debut.

Bell, pitching coach Derek Johnson and bullpen coach Lee Tunnell will have to figure out what’s next for Lorenzen: Put him in low-leverage situations until he gets off the mat or keep trying him in bigger moments?

“Looking forward, we will re-evaluate what we can do to get him back to where he needs to be,” Bell said. “We'll be thinking about that. At this point, for the team and for Michael, we've just got to do whatever's best for him.”