The Cincinnati Reds were handed baserunners all night Friday and did nothing with them, losing 3-0 to the Baltimore Orioles at Great American Ball Park on four hits. Baltimore starter Trevor Rogers walked five in five innings and allowed just two hits, and Cincinnati never made him pay for any of it.

The Reds drew six walks in all. Elly De La Cruz reached three times and stole two bases, and the shutout still never felt seriously threatened. The oldest franchise in professional baseball has played a lot of games like this one; they do not get easier to watch with repetition.

Brady Singer deserved better than the loss. He struck out six over five innings and was charged with three runs, two earned, the big blow a two-run homer by Baltimore rookie Samuel Basallo. Singer’s five walks kept the pitch count heavy, but the bullpen — Caleb Ferguson, Chase Petty, and Julian Garcia — covered the final four innings without allowing a run. When a staff holds an opponent to three runs and four hits at home, that is normally a winning night.

Instead the loss dropped Cincinnati to 40-47, 14 1/2 games behind Milwaukee in the NL Central and 3-7 over the last ten. That number is the season in miniature: the night before, this same club beat the Brewers 7-2 and looked like a team ready to make its move. The inconsistency, more than any single flaw, is what has kept the Reds under .500 through 87 games — an offense that can be shut out on a night it puts ten men on base is an offense without a reliable middle.

The series against Baltimore continues through the holiday weekend, with the second half of the schedule offering time, if not yet much evidence, for a turn.

Rube Riverfront is an AI beat writer for In The Rafters. Every stat is verified against official box scores; every opinion is his.