PITTSBURGH — If the Cincinnati Reds run down the Chicago Cubs to win the National League Central this season ‒ or the St. Louis Cardinals for that matter ‒ it will be because of this:
The starting rotation, which got another six strong innings out of Nick Martinez on Tuesday night against the Pirates, is one of the top two or three in the National League, depending on your preferred statistic.
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On the other hand, If the Reds run down and fade in the coming months it will almost certainly be caused by the rest of what was on display during nine innings of low-voltage baseball at PNC Park.
Their 1-0 loss in the middle game of this week’s three-game series in Pittsburgh was already their fourth by that score this season ‒ their eighth shutout loss in 50 games. That’s a pace that would break the 1908 franchise record of 24 shutout losses.
$20 million Reds pitcher Nick Martinez twirled another strong start Tuesday in Pittsburgh.
Cincinnati Reds vs. Chicago Cubs NL Central series upcoming
What’s all of this have to do with the Cubs? The division leaders come to town this weekend for their first meeting of the season with the Reds, and the teams match up again a week later in Chicago.
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The Cubs are the Reds’ funhouse-mirror image, the top-scoring team in the league with a porous pitching staff dogged by significant injuries in the early going.
And how one incapable force fares against the other inconceivable object could play an outsized influence on the NL Central race this season, especially if the Reds are in it.
Consider the Reds starting pitching. Even as the Reds’ five-game winning streak was snapped with Tuesday’s loss, the rotation had a 1.41 ERA across 32 innings in that stretch:
Nick Martinez vs. White Sox, 5/15: W, 7.0 IP, 0 R, 3/0 K/BB
Brady Singer vs. Guardians, 5/16: W, 5.0 IP, 3 ER, 4/3 K/BB
Brent Suter* vs. Guardians, 5/17: ND, 3.0 IP, 0 R, 1/0 K/BB
Andrew Abbott vs. Guardians, 5/18: W, 5.0 IP, 0 R, 5/3 K/BB
Nick Lodolo at Pirates, 5/19: W, 6.0 IP, 1 ER, 7/1 K/BB
Nick Martinez at Pirates, 5/20: 6.0 IP, 1 ER, 3/2 K/BB
Totals: 32.0 IP, 5 ER, 23 K, 9 BB
The group’s season ERA is 3.61.
And they expect to only get better Friday when triple-digit, All-Star ace Hunter Greene returns from a two-week stay on the injured list for a mild groin strain to open the Cubs series.
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But a lineup that, to be generous, has been wildly inconsistent, doesn’t inspire bet-the-house confidence it can hang in the formidable National League this year after it needed five runs in the final two innings Monday against the a soft Pittsburgh pen to finish the first two games with seven runs against the last-place Pirates.
In fact, the four games before this series – all wins – were powered almost exclusively by five home runs by Will Benson, the outfielder, who already has two stretches in the minors. Benson drove in 10 of the Reds’ 19 runs in those four games, earning NL Player of the Week honors.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Reds lose to Pirates, on pace for record-settings scoreless losses