PHOENIX -- Andrew Abbott turned in a rare stinker and the Reds’ offense did very little to pick him up on Saturday at Chase Field as they absorbed a 10-1 loss to the D-backs and fell a game further behind in the postseason race for the second straight night.
Cincinnati (67-63) started the road trip with back-to-back wins in Anaheim, but after three straight losses, the Reds sit 2 1/2 games behind the Mets (69-60) for the third and final National League Wild Card spot with 32 games remaining in the season.
After dropping the series opener 6-5 in 11 innings and using every pitcher in the bullpen outside of Friday callup Zach Maxwell, the Reds really could have used another gem from their ace. Instead, Abbott lasted only four innings and gave up a career-high seven runs (six earned).
“Uncharacteristically, just a lot of pitches that were catching the middle, kind of thigh high and up way more than we’re used to watching with him,” manager Terry Francona said. “He threw enough strikes and he had some strikeouts but there were a lot of misses that he’s not normally doing.”
Abbott, known for filling up the strike zone and pitching to contact, opened the first by getting two quick outs on four pitches, but four straight D-backs hits had the Reds down 3-0 early and they never recovered.
That was the beginning of an unfortunate trend for the evening, as five of the seven runs Abbott allowed came with two outs.
“They’re good over there, let’s not take anything away from them,” Abbott said. “But I think I would have gotten out of some of those situations had I made a better pitch in a better location.”
The lefty began the night sitting in second behind Pirates ace Paul Skenes for the NL ERA title with a 2.28 mark, but he’s fallen to fourth at 2.62. Not that Abbott is concerned with that. His priority is on the Reds returning to the postseason for the first time since 2020.
“We’re not scoreboard watching, but we’re just trying to go out each day and play as well as we can,” Abbott said. “We’re not going to win them all. We know that, but we’re trying to control what we can and tonight wasn’t our night.”
Francona conceded that it can be tempting to scoreboard watch during a playoff race, but he also pointed out that it matters little what the Mets or any other club does if the Reds don’t take care of business on their end.
“We have to win. If we win, we’re going to be OK. If we lose, we probably won’t be OK,” Francona said. “I never really put a lot into [looking ahead]. I just think we need to try to win ‘tonight’ as much as we can. If we do that, we’ll be OK.”
The next “tonight” is actually a 1:10 p.m. MST first pitch on Sunday, and there will be a little something extra on the line for right-hander Brady Singer and Co.
The Reds have gone 42 series without being swept, dating back to last year and including the 41 series they’ve completed this season. That stands as the fourth-longest streak in club history, and they are the only big league club that hasn’t been swept in 2025.
They’ve needed a win in the series finale to avoid that fate seven times this season, and they’ve come through each time. They’ll need No. 8 on Sunday.
Maxwell debuts
A bit of a silver lining in the blowout loss was the debut of No. 24 Cincinnati prospect Maxwell, the 6-foot-6, 275 pound right-hander who is better known in Reds Nation as Big Sugar.
Maxwell took over for Abbott to start the fifth inning and went two frames, topping 100 mph 17 times. He’s the first Reds reliever to make his debut in relief with five-plus K’s since Tejay Antone on July 27, 2020.
“That was great,” Maxwell said. “It’s kind of just all coming back to me now, you kind of black out when you get out there. But it was a good time. I just saw my family, and that’s what it’s really about.