The Reds lost again to the Marlins as the MLB trade deadline looms.
At this rate, the Cincinnati Reds will be MLB trade deadline sellers by the end of the week.
After getting clobbered 12-2 by the Miami Marlins Tuesday night the Reds have lost four straight games and six of their last eight to fall back to .500 – now closer in the wild-card standings to the moribund Marlins than playoff position.
At least they got another All-Star selection out of the evening, when MLB announced that left-hander Andrew Abbott joins teammate Elly De La Cruz on the National League squad next week as a replacement for Dodgers pitcher Yosh Yamamoto.
But that's about as good as it got for the Reds on a night staff workhorse Nick Martinez got roughed up for seven runs on six hits in the third inning – strangely, retiring all the other batters he faced through five innings.
Martinez, who flirted into the ninth inning with a no-hitter just two starts ago, left the game after loading the bases with nobody out in the sixth, and all three scored on Scott Barlow's watch.
It meant a brutal two-game start to this seven-game homestand against also-rans Miami and Colorado leading into the All-Star break, coming on the heels of back-to-back series losses in Boston and Philadelphia.
About two weeks ago, general manager Brad Meador said of the trade deadline: "Our only goal right now is to be in this."
Meador and team president Nick Krall have suggested a desire to add at the July 31 deadline, and players have talked about sending the win-now message to buy with a strong finish to the break.
That's not exactly the message that was sent when catcher Jose Trevino was pulled from behind the plate, asked to shed his gear and go to the mound to pitch with the bases loaded and nobody out in the eighth inning of a 10-1 game.
Decision time is fast approaching for how the Reds plan to operate in the final weeks before the deadline. Meador suggested their focus turns fully toward that after the draft, which starts Sunday.
But if they can't beat the Marlins (four losses in five tries this season) and can't hit for lengthy stretches at a time regardless of who they're playing, will they rationalize buying at the deadline when they also have several players on the roster on short-term contracts who might be attractive to the top teams in the standings?
The Reds scored exactly one run in each of their last four games until an unearned run in the ninth Tuesday, mustering just two hits through six innings in this one (five total).
That's nine hits total for their last three games against Philadelphia* and Miami.
*Phillies ace Zack Wheeler started to dam up the Reds hitting Sunday with a one-hit complete game in which he faced just one batter over the minimum.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Reds lose to Marlins again as MLB trade deadline decisions loom
Category: Baseball
