CINCINNATI -- For reasons both competitive and sentimental, starting pitcher Sonny Gray wanted to do great things during his Reds debut on Sunday. Considering he lasted less than three innings while drawing boos, Gray fell well short of his goals during a 5-0 Cincinnati loss to the Pirates.

Gray pitched 2 2/3 innings, allowing three runs (two earned) on five hits. He had four walks, no strikeouts and hit a batter.

Acquired from the Yankees in a January trade and signed to a three-year, $30.5 million extension, Gray was seeking to rebound from a rough tenure in New York. A native of the Nashville, Tenn., area, he once came to Great American Ball Park as a young kid with his late father, who was a big Reds fan.

Of the 72 pitches Gray threw in his start, there were more balls (37) than strikes (35). Much of the problem centered around his inability to execute secondary pitches. According to Statcast, he got only two swings-and-misses from his curveball and zero called or swing-and-miss strikes from his eight sliders.

“I threw 10 innings in spring, didn’t walk a guy,” Gray said. “I threw 2 2/3 today and walked four and hit one. I didn’t put guys away. I didn’t throw strikes.”

In the top of the first inning, he threw a first-pitch ball to four of the six batters.

“I didn't make an adjustment,” Gray said of his overall day. “I felt like early in the game I got to two strikes OK. I got ahead. I went from 0-2 to 3-2 numerous times. I went from 1-2 to 3-2 numerous times.”

Gray’s own fielding mistake came back to bite him in the first inning. On a Starling Marte grounder to Joey Votto, Gray dropped the throw to first base while covering the bag and was charged with an error. After Marte stole second, Josh Bell hit a two-out RBI single into center field.

With one out in the second inning, Pirates pitcher Trevor Williams bounced an RBI single down the right-field line.

In a labored top of the third, only four of the 17 pitches Gray threw were strikes. He gave up a single to Francisco Cervelli, a four-pitch walk to Jung Ho Kang and a two-out walk on five pitches to Erik Gonzalez that loaded the bases.

“In the third inning, I was 2-0 to everyone,” Gray said.

Amid boos from the crowd of 18,737 fans, Gray’s five-pitch walk to the pitcher, Williams, forced in a run and prompted his early exit.

“He had to work a little bit harder than you would like to see him have to work,” Reds manager David Bell said. “He wasn’t missing by much, but I think that extra work, just because he was just missing, caught up.”

Parts of the lineup lagging

Though only two games have been played, much of the top of the Reds' lineup has yet to get going. Other than Votto, who is 3-for-8 after going 2-for-4 with a single and a double on Sunday, Scott Schebler is 0-for-7, Eugenio Suarez is 0-for-6 with two walks and Yasiel Puig is 0-for-7 with one walk. Representing the tying run with two outs and two on against Williams in the sixth, Puig struck out on three pitches.

Bell didn’t dissect the hitters’ issues, but he expressed confidence.

“These guys continue to work,” Bell said. “We like who we have throughout our lineup. The guys at the top of the order have a long track record; they’re working at it and trying to get settled in as we get the season going here. We’re confident in each and every guy in our lineup.”

Williams deserves credit for a good start, though, as he gave up three hits and one walk with six strikeouts over six innings.

Defense commits four errors

Besides Gray’s error, Cincinnati made three others. On Adam Frazier’s one-out single to center field in the second inning, Schebler dropped the ball as he prepared to throw, allowing the runner to advance to second base.

The Reds also made two errors during the Pirates’ two-run eighth inning: Suarez rushed to field a one-out Frazier bunt and threw the ball into the seats, and with Marte on second base after an RBI single, reliever Robert Stephenson airmailed a pickoff attempt into center field, which led to another run.

“Of course, you never want to make errors,” Bell said. “[On] the pick, where we were trying to hold the guy close at second base, I think the ball just got away from Robert and slipped out of his hand.”

Freezing factoid

Sunday’s first-pitch temperature of 35 degrees was tied for the second-coldest in Great American Ball Park history. The coldest start to a Reds game at GABP was 30 degrees, also vs. Pittsburgh on April 7, 2007. Gray knew that his long innings did not help.

“When you go out there and the defense sits on the field for 20-25 minutes every half-inning, it’s going to be hard to get something going offensively,” he said. “It was just not a good performance.”