CINCINNATI – Nick Martinez has often been prone to that one rough inning, but it's usually in games the Reds' swingman pitcher starts. On Tuesday, it came during a relief appearance in a bullpen game for Cincinnati and it proved consequential.

Pesky Guardians hitting had something to do with that. Martinez surrendered three runs in the top of the third inning and the Reds could not bounce back on the way to a 5-3 loss at Great American Ball Park in the first game of the Ohio Cup series against Cleveland.

“I thought they put together some good at-bats against me, fouled some good pitches off and then they won those at-bats," Martinez said.

Following a seven-game winning streak, the Reds (32-35) have back-to-back losses.

A confluence of events led to the Reds going with all relievers in the game. The spot in the rotation became a vacancy last week when Graham Ashcraft was optioned to Triple-A Louisville on June 6.

On Sunday, the club decided that Tuesday's originally-scheduled starter, Hunter Greene, would have his turn pushed back to Friday. That was because Greene had thrown more than 100 pitches in each of his last five games (111 in each of his last two starts) and six of the last seven.

For the third time this season, a bullpen day began with Brent Suter, and the lefty worked a scoreless first inning. Then the game was turned over to Martinez, who came in with a 1.01 ERA in 10 relief appearances.

Martinez briskly pitched a 1-2-3 top of the second inning and returned for the third inning to immediate trouble against the bottom of the Cleveland order.

Brayan Rocchio led off with a 10-pitch plate appearance and drew a walk. Bo Naylor followed with a double to right field. After an 0-2 count, Steven Kwan fouled off five pitches and on the ninth pitch of the at-bat, notched the second of his three hits in the game with a two-run double he grounded down the left-field line. A fourth straight batter reached as Tyler Freeman hit a single to put runners on the corners.

With one out, the Guardians plated a third run against Martinez on Josh Naylor's RBI single to right field to make it a 3-1 game. Martinez faced one more batter and got a foul popout before departing.

"That’s what this team does. They make contact and make it tough," Reds manager David Bell said of Cleveland. "Nick Martinez is throwing the ball well. He just kind of ran into an inning where he had to throw a lot of pitches.”

Martinez, who had 9 1/3 scoreless innings over the two previous Reds bullpen games -- both against the Dodgers -- could only deliver 1 2/3 innings over 39 pitches vs. Cleveland.

“Not great. Not what we’re looking for," Martinez said. "The guys came in behind me, picked me up and kept us in that ballgame.”

In Sunday's loss to the Cubs, long man Carson Spiers delivered 5 2/3 scoreless innings when Frankie Montas couldn't get out of the second inning. That made Spiers unavailable to pick up for Martinez.

Cleveland added on with Josh Naylor's eighth-inning homer against Fernando Cruz and a ninth-inning run against Buck Farmer. With the Guardians owning the best bullpen ERA in baseball, that was too much deficit for the Reds, although they added a run in the bottom of the ninth and put the tying run on first base.

The tying run reached because Blake Dunn was hit on the head with a 101 mph fastball from Cleveland closer Emmanuel Clase. Dunn's helmet flap cracked but he stayed in the game and was OK when checked out after the game.

For the next turn in the rotation, Bell revealed after the game that Spiers will get the ball on Monday at Pittsburgh. Ashcraft, who has a 5.05 ERA in 12 starts, including a 6.83 ERA over his previous six starts, is not eligible to be called up again until June 21.