CINCINNATI -- The score in the Reds’ 3-0 loss to the Cubs in Game 1 of a seven-inning doubleheader might say otherwise, but Cincinnati starter Trevor Bauer thought he had good stuff that would normally be a recipe for good things.

"I’m not upset with the stuff or the command. I think I pitched really well. They just were better," Bauer said.

Bauer had Cubs slugger Anthony Rizzo right where he wanted him with an 0-2 count in the third inning. But the at-bat was really just beginning. In what became a nine-pitch battle between Bauer vs. Rizzo, five balls were fouled off.

• Box score

Rizzo fouled two curveballs, a sinker and then looked at a fastball for a ball. Rizzo fouled off another cutter and then a curveball. For the ninth pitch, Bauer and catcher Tucker Barnhart tried a low changeup.

"He fouled off a lot of good pitches," Bauer said. "I felt like I executed everything that at-bat. Knowing that I haven’t thrown a changeup -- I’ve thrown two changeups all year leading into that, I can’t imagine it was on the scouting report."

Rizzo reached down and lifted a high fly ball to right field. Despite Statcast giving the contact an expected batting average of .260, the ball carried an estimated 367 feet for a solo homer.

“At that point, when you’ve shown him just about everything, and then you show him a pitch he hasn’t seen yet in two at-bats and he happened to hit it out," Barnhart said. "It’s one of those things where at the end of the day, he’s a really damn good hitter and the guy on the mound we have is a really damn good pitcher. It just didn’t go our way at that point.”

"I threw it right where I wanted to, below the zone, and I figured I’d get a weak out or a swing-and-miss on it and obviously didn’t," Bauer said. "I think I fooled him, but he’s good at putting the barrel on the ball and that’s what he did, and honestly, it floated out."

Nothing was cheap about Rizzo's second long ball, which led off the top of the sixth inning. A 1-2 slider was blistered to right field for a homer that left the bat at 104.1 mph and traveled 422 feet.

"I threw him a good one the pitch before, got it below the zone," Bauer said. "I know I can get him crossing the barrel, back foot. I was trying to go down-and-off with that pitch and it just hung up in the zone. It’s a touchy game in there with him if you leave it in the zone. It’s one of his power spots, obviously, as you saw."

Cubs starter Yu Darvish gave up seven hits over six innings with two walks and eight strikeouts. Cincinnati had chances but was 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position while stranding 10.

The Rizzo homers accounted for half of the four hits Bauer allowed over 5 1/3 innings along with three earned runs, two walks and five strikeouts.

Bauer labored into deep counts in his outing, but he also endured some bad luck.

After Kyle Schwarber's leadoff walk in the top of the second inning, he was running on a 3-2 Bauer pitch to Willson Contreras. That caused second baseman Mike Moustakas to move to his right to cover the bag. Contreras zinged a would-be double-play grounder where Moustakas was no longer standing, which put runners on the corners.

"That one wasn’t frustrating," Bauer said. "I got behind in that at-bat, it was a 3-2 count, and that’s just one of those things that happens in baseball."

Schwarber was then able to score on a fielder's choice by Jason Heyward, which also could've been a double-play ball, but it went under first baseman Joey Votto's glove and to Moustakas, who was backing up.

The inning kept going when Jason Kipnis blooped a single that landed on the foul line behind third base.

"I know that inning kind of extended a little bit and there is the bloop with Kipnis and all that. Maybe a couple less hitters there, maybe I don’t face Rizzo in the sixth, something like that," Bauer said. "It’s baseball. Enough things went against me today that they beat me, but I do have to emphasize that the Cubs were just good and they put up really good at-bats today."