Reds fall, 6-4, in series finale vs. Rockies

With a 6-4 loss to the Rockies on Wednesday, the Reds officially entered the "team meeting" phase of the season.

With the team's record at 19-27, Reds manager Bryan Price was the only person to speak in the closed-door meeting with the team, said catcher Brayan Pena, who described the speech as "very positive."

Price didn't want to get into specifics, instead acknowledging that there was a meeting and little more.

"It's really nobody's business," he said.

"When the general is speaking, all the soldiers listen," Pena said. "It was a very good one, though. It was something we needed to hear. Hopefully (Thursday) we can enjoy a good day off and regroup and come back on Friday. In my opinion, it was was a very good meeting and a very positive one."

Meetings, though, don't score runs.

"You hope it wakes us up and gives us a clear head come Friday, but, I mean, we know what we're doing, we know what we need to figure out," Reds starter Mike Leake said. "It's just a matter of putting the pieces together and finding a way to grind out wins instead of grind out losses."

Only a three-run eighth-inning rally made the Reds look like they were doing anything other than looking forward to Thursday's day off.

Rockies starter Kyle Kendrick, owner of a 6.58 ERA coming into the day, needed just 61 pitches to get through seven innings as the Rockies built a 6-1 lead against Leake before the Cincinnati offense awakened.

The Reds had just three hits — one of those a dubious scoring decision on a Billy Hamilton infield single — against Kendrick coming into the eighth inning when Tucker Barnhart led off the inning with a solo home run, his third of the season.

After pinch-hitter Pena popped out, Hamilton notched his second hit of the day, and then Kendrick walked leadoff man Skip Schumaker. The fourth ball to Schumaker was Kendrick's 14th pitch of the inning, his 75th and final pitch of the day.

Reliever Boone Logan then walked Joey Votto to load the bases and then Todd Frazier to force in a run, making it 6-3. Jay Bruce then hit a blooper to shallow left field, but third baseman Nolan Arenado - playing in the shift near the usual shortstop position - couldn't make the play going out, and left fielder Rafael Ynoa was too deep to catch it coming in. The ball dropped in, scoring Schumaker from third and keeping the bases loaded.

Rockies manager Walt Weiss then replaced Logan with Rafael Betancourt, who got Marlon Byrd to fly out to short right field — but it wasn't deep enough for Votto to test the strong arm of Carlos Gonzalez. Zack Cozart then flew out to left, ending the inning and leaving the bases loaded.

The bottom of the Reds' order, which started the rally in the eighth, went in order in the ninth against Rockies closer John Axford.

Leake saw his personal losing streak reach three games, and the team has lost his last four starts. Leake didn't allow more than four runs in any of his first seven starts of the season and hasn't allowed fewer than five in any of his last three, including the six on Wednesday.

"No. 1 is missing over the middle and No. 2 is probably not going with instincts enough and just going with the standard plan, I think, I don't know how to word it," Leake said when asked the difference in his performance the last three games. "It'll come. It's three games, unfortunately it's been three games that I haven't caught on to it quick enough. We still have a lot of starts left."

It didn't even take two innings for the Rockies to score five against Leake on Wednesday. Arenado hit a three-run home run in the first inning, and Charlie Blackmon hit a two-run homer in the second.

The Rockies added another run in the fifth off of Leake, and like the other runs, it came with two outs. This one, though, was on a bloop single from first baseman Ben Paulsen, scoring Gonzalez from second.

In all, the Rockies notched six runs and nine hits off of Leake in just five innings of work. Leake walked two and struck out four. It was his third straight start of five innings or fewer, after going at least 5 2/3 in each of his first seven starts of the season.

The Reds are also a season-high eight games below .500, and at 19-27 have their worst record through 46 games since 2007, when the team started 18-28 and manager Jerry Narron was fired with a 31-51 record on July 1.

Price said despite the struggles, he's not feeling pressure.

"Pressure is self-induced," Price said. "It's no fun to go through this. I've been doing this for a long time and been on many teams that had periods of real struggle. So, for me, it's no added pressure. I've been criticized a lot in my life, so getting more criticism doesn't change my mindset or my lifestyle or anything else."

The Reds will host the National League East-leading Washington Nationals for three games starting Friday. The Nationals entered Wednesday's game in Chicago with the inverse record of the Reds, at 27-19.

"We're just trying to play good baseball," Price said. "Before we lost these 10 out of 11, I didn't think we were playing great baseball at 18-17. We're capable of playing a lot better. It certainly doesn't have to work ethic of staff and the players. They're doing a terrific job with that. But we have to anticipate success or the field mote than we are. It's really a matter of being frustrated and trying to play baseball through the frustration. That's a challenge for all of us for sure."