SAN DIEGO -- Reds starter Luis Cessa fell behind in the count, threw a lot of pitches and found key strikeouts elusive. That produced another short outing Wednesday afternoon, perhaps the precursor to a change to the rotation.

Cessa lasted 3 1 /3 innings during the Reds’ 7-1 loss to the Padres at Petco Park. Cincinnati dropped two of three games in the series and finished its West Coast trip through Oakland and San Diego with a 3-3 record.

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"Today was not one of the best days," said Cessa, who allowed three runs and four hits with three walks and two strikeouts. "The last couple of outings, I’ve been really aggressive in the count. Today was one of those days I couldn’t throw first-pitch strikes. I was behind in the count a bunch of times. I had trouble with command today." 

Cessa threw first-pitch strikes to only seven of his 16 batters. Eight batters worked into three-ball counts.

"[The Padres] control the strike zone really well," Reds manager David Bell said. "Just getting behind, and Luis wasn’t able to really execute what he was trying to do, really from the beginning."

By the second inning, which required 29 pitches from Cessa, Bell had his bullpen warming up. Jake Cronenworth opened the inning with a single, followed by Ha-Seong Kim's walk.

A nice diving catch in left field by Jake Fraley robbed Rougned Odor of a run-scoring hit but Brett Sullivan's two-run double put the Reds into a 2-0 hole.

"I saw my pitches were moving good, but I need to change my targets -- because when I throw my pitches, they move the way I want them to move, but it’s out of the zone or missing spots," Cessa said.

Cessa gave up a leadoff single in the fourth inning before throwing his 71st and final pitch to get a popout from Kim. 

The Reds have an off-day on Thursday and will have another one coming on Monday, which gave Bell room to be aggressive with his bullpen use early. Five of their last six wins came in their final at-bat.

"So I felt like we could take that chance at it today. I’m glad we did," Bell said. "It didn’t work out but the way our players have been playing, we deserved an opportunity to try to get back into that one and have a chance to win it.”

It wasn't to be, however, as lefty reliever Alex Young took over and gave up Sullivan's two-run homer to make it a 4-0 game. 

Spencer Steer's leadoff homer in the sixth inning against Padres starter Seth Lugo provided the Reds' lone run. San Diego put the game away in the seventh with three runs against Reiver Sanmartin and Casey Legumina.

Through six starts, Cessa is 1-4 with a 9.36 ERA and has more walks (12) than strikeouts (11) in 25 innings. He has had just two starts of at least five innings. The right-hander posted a 4.30 ERA in 10 starts in 2022 after moving from the bullpen midseason.

Cessa has struck out an MLB-low 8.7% of batters faced this season (minimum 20 innings). He was coming off his first winning start on Friday at Oakland, where he gave up three earned runs and eight hits over five-plus innings.

"I had a couple of bad games early in the season, but I think the last two outings, I felt a little better. I attacked the zone and had better results," Cessa said. "Today ... I battled. I tried to stay for the most innings I could for the team. It’s one of those days. It’s a long season, so I just look for the next one."

Whether there is a next one remains to be seen. Bell was non-committal about whether the Reds would continue with Cessa in the rotation. At Triple-A Louisville, Chase Anderson was traded to the Rays on Wednesday. Ben Lively has a 2.33 ERA through five games but isn't on the 40-man roster. Prospects like Andrew Abbott and Levi Stoudt are on the 40-man.

"We’re always looking to evaluate what’s best for the team," Bell said. "We know that Luis Cessa is a good pitcher. He’s been doing it for a while, mostly out of the bullpen. But we really liked what he did last year as a starter for us. It’s still early in the year, but we’ll take a look at that and see what’s best for our team.”