April 11, 2026<\/a><\/p>\nThe Reds, who entered Saturday\u2019s game with the fewest runs scored in Major League Baseball (31), scored a season-high seven runs en route to a 7-3 victory, snapping a three-game losing streak.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nice to see one fall,\u201d Steer said. \u201cThat\u2019s the process, not getting too wrapped up in results. If you\u2019re worried about results and results-oriented, this game will eat you alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the struggle to score runs early in the season, Cincinnati has a 9-6 record and is part of a jumbled National League Central in which four of the five teams have winning records.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe team is still finding our identity as an offense,\u201d said Reds first baseman Nathaniel Lowe, who cleared the bases with a three-run double in the first inning. \u201cIt\u2019s April 11, so last I checked, we have a lot of leeway ahead of us. I\u2019m definitely confident in this group that we\u2019re going to bust out and get consistent, and we\u2019re going to like it a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Reds walked nine Angels batters, but Los Angeles pitchers also walked nine Cincinnati batters. The Reds got timely hitting from Lowe in the first, then capitalized on four walks and three wild pitches by Angels right-hander Chase Silseth in the eighth inning to plate two more. Closer Emilio Pag\u00e1n was already warming up and entered the game with a lead of more than two runs for the first time this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t care if it\u2019s passed balls or hits; however it happens, as long as you extend the lead there in the eighth and kind of kick them when they\u2019re down, for lack of a better term, that\u2019s what good teams do,\u201d said Lowe, who was part of the Texas Rangers\u2019 World Series team in 2023.<\/p>\n
The Angels had runners in scoring position in each of the first six innings Saturday but scored just three runs, stranding 10 batters (the same number as the Reds). The Reds had a pair of double plays, and catcher Tyler Stephenson challenged a 1-2 ball call to Jo Adell that was overturned with two outs, ending the sixth inning and stranding leadoff man Zach Neto on second.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did some good things. We had to, because we did some uncharacteristic things like walking that many people,\u201d Reds manager Terry Francona said. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t usually lend itself to a crisp game, but fortunately, we caught the ball and turned a few double plays.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is still early, and other teams expected to produce offensively \u2014 such as the Chicago Cubs, New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox \u2014 have yet to do so.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t want to stare at stats when the scoreboard\u2019s up there with a lot of 1s and low 2s in batting average numbers,\u201d Lowe said. \u201cBut I just think that when that normalizes, a lot of guys are going to relax and we\u2019re going to produce a lot more runs, which in turn helps the pitching staff, and then we\u2019ll just play better baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n