WEST SACRAMENTO -- Before the Reds played the Athletics for the first time in their temporary ballpark -- a Minor League facility with some quirks -- they got accustomed to such things like having their clubhouse being located beyond the center-field fence.
"I’ve never had a clubhouse guy ask me before, ‘If you get ejected, do you want me to come get you with the cart?’ So that was a first," manager Terry Francona said pregame. “It really doesn’t matter where we play or who, we’ve got to win. Whatever gets thrown at you, hopefully you deal with it really well. If we leave here tonight and we’re one run better, I bet you’re not going to hear too much [complaining] about anything.”
No complaints about the ballpark, maybe, but there ended up being plenty to lament about the performance of the Reds' offense during a 3-0 loss to the A's at Sutter Health Park.
Cincinnati, which had won four of its previous five games, was 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base. That included going 0-for-6 through the first two innings as numerous opportunities came and went. A's pitchers offered plenty of freebies with five walks and a hit batter, but they also registered 14 strikeouts.
"We did a good job of getting guys on and moving guys and getting it right there. We just didn’t do a good job of getting them in tonight," left fielder Austin Hays said. "It was a combination of just not getting it done for us and a couple of times they made pitches in those situations.”
As it often is this time of the year, the loss against the non-contending A’s was costly with only 15 games remaining. The Reds (74-73) missed on gaining more ground on the slumping Mets, who dropped their seventh consecutive game earlier in the night to the Rangers. Cincinnati remained 1 1/2 games back of the final National League Wild Card spot.
"We saw that game," Hays said of the Mets’ loss. "We wanted to get a win. We went out there and gave ourselves a good chance. We had the opportunities. We just didn’t finish it a couple times.”
Cincinnati was also passed by the Giants in the Wild Card picture after they beat the Dodgers in 10 innings to move to within a half-game of New York.
Reds starter Brady Singer gave up only three hits over six innings, but two of them were solo home runs that accounted for the two runs he allowed. In the bottom of the first inning, Lawrence Butler led off with a homer to right-center field -- his sixth long ball against Cincinnati in four games dating back to last season.
Opening the A's third inning, Carlos Cortes hit a homer to right field for a two-run lead. Cortes later added a second homer in the eighth inning against Chase Burns.
Singer retired his last seven batters in a row.
"I felt good throughout the outing. Two homers, obviously not what I want to do there. Other than that, I felt good," said Singer, who has a 2.21 ERA over his last nine starts.
The Reds put A's starter J.T. Ginn under pressure as he labored early, walking his first two batters of the game. But Ginn escaped unscathed in the first inning. Will Benson opened the second inning with a triple to right field after his drive was lost in the sky by JJ Bleday. Ginn recovered well by striking out the rest of the side.
"Early on especially, a couple of walks and it looked like we had a chance to do some damage," Francona said. "It ended up being the whole night where we didn’t get any hits with runners in scoring position.”
Hays opened the eighth inning with a single to left field and advanced on Spencer Steer's single to left field. Both runners executed a double steal with Ke'Bryan Hayes batting and two outs. Hayes scorched a ball up the middle at 99.3 mph, but it hit reliever Justin Stermer in the leg, enabling him to recover the ball and throw to first base for the third out.
"You’ve got to give yourselves more chances than that," Francona said.
The schedule is dwindling, so there isn't time to dwell on the blown opportunity to improve the Reds' postseason chances.
"We’ve got to show up and play tomorrow," Hays said. "We’ve got to flush it as soon as we leave this locker room today. We’ll leave the 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position, leave the guys on base, whatever happened today. We’ll leave that in here and tomorrow we’ll be better.”