It's an odd baseball season in Cincinnati when you can get pornography for free, and the home team can't buy a hit.
The Reds had five hits on Thursday night, one or two fewer than needed to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers. As it was, they struck out five times with runners in scoring position, and the Dodgers defeated the Reds 2-1 at Cinergy Field.
That's four runs in three games for the Reds, who have lost five consecutive games for the third time this season. For the ninth time, two runs were enough to beat them.
The Reds are 11-27, officially and finally baseball's worst team. They are one game behind the 12-26 Chicago Cubs, who needed 24 games since their 0-14 start to catch the Reds. The organization has not had a worse record after 38 games since 1934, when it was 9-29. Manager Ray Knight still can't shake his perpetual optimism, though 9 1/2 games out in the Central Division.
During a conversation with General Manager Jim Bowden, Knight said he told Bowden: "If tomorrow was the first day of the season, and this is just the way I feel, I don't think anybody in our division will have a better record than we will. I don't know if we've dug too deep a hole to make it. I feel like we're a hundred games out. I don't even look at the standings anymore."
Reds starter John Smiley (3-6) allowed two runs in seven innings, and was the loser. Ismael Valdes (2-4) pitched seven innings and allowed a fifth-inning run. Todd Worrell pitched the ninth for his 12th save.
This is the way the Dodgers win games, and the way the Reds lose them.
"I know we're not an 11-and-whatever-we-are club," Knight insisted. "We've been one run, one hit away from winning 10 more ballgames. Easily."
On that point, he's right. The Reds haven't lost by more than three runs since the end of April.
"We are pressing," said shortstop Barry Larkin, who returned to the lineup a day after his ailing left heel was injected with cortisone. "I know I'm pressing."
The Dodgers scored two runs early against Smiley, who didn't have the control that he had in his two previous starts, but still kept the Reds a clutch hit or two from the Dodgers.
Eric Karros and Raul Mondesi drew back-to-back walks to start the second inning, and Todd Zeile, a .221 hitter in his first season in Los Angeles, grounded a single to left field. Though the ball got through the infield quickly, Karros scored easily from second base.
With runners still at first and second, Smiley worked out of the inning with a fly ball from Billy Ashley, a strikeout from Juan Castro and a popout from Valdes.
The Dodgers led 1-0 until the fourth, when Mondesi singled, stole second and advanced to third on a fly ball. Ashley singled to left field for the 2-0 lead, which seemed plenty for Valdes, whose 1-4 record did not accurately portray his 2.25 ERA.
Valdes won his first start, on April 2, and had not won since. In the six starts that followed he allowed 10 earned runs.
Knight called a post-game meeting to talk about execution of fundamentals.
"We've got to hit," he said. "We've just got to start hitting. When we do, we have a whole lot of making up to do."
The Reds had one hit through three innings, in which Valdes pitched to the minimum nine batters. Bret Boone, nearing the .200 level after an abysmal first five weeks, singled to lead off the third and was caught stealing.
Deion Sanders doubled to begin the fourth inning for his first hit in 16 at-bats. Curtis Goodwin was safe on a bunt that also sacrificed Sanders to third, and stole second. The Reds had runners at second and third, with none out, and with the middle of their order coming against Valdes.
Dodgers manager Bill Russell ordered the infield to stay back, practically conceding a run. But the Reds didn't put a ball in play. Valdes, in order, struck out Larkin, Willie Greene and Reggie Sanders. He pumped his fist after his 2-and-2 fastball beat Sanders above the waist.
Valdes allowed three hits and one run in seven innings.
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