By HAL McCOY
The Cincinnati Reds winning streak came to a quick halt Tuesday night.
One game.
After ending a nine-game losing streak Monday night, beating the Tampa Bay Rays, the Reds started a new losing streak Tuesday night, losing to the Rays, 6-5.
AND IT WAS MOSTLY DUE to a walk on the wild side by Reds starter Amir Garrett, who gave up all six runs in only 3 2/3 innings.
He walked four and the first three walks all came around to score. And he couldn’t protect a 2-0 lead the Reds gave him in the first three innings.
Garrett faced one over the minimum in the first two innings, giving up a two-out double to Evan Longoria in the first and nothing else.
BUT GARRETT LOST ALL contact with home plate in the third inning. He walked two of the first three hitters and both came around to score.
After the two walks, Corey Dickerson singled for a run and with two outs and two strikes Logan Morrison singled for two runs and a 3-2 Tampa Bay lead.
The Reds muffed a scoring chance in the fourth when Jose Peraza beat an infield single that was upheld by review. He stole second and took third on a passed ball.
But with one out and the infield drawn in, Billy Hamilton grounded to short. Peraza broke for home on contact and was out by the distance between Tampa and St. Petersburg.
GARRETT ISSUED ANOTHER walk with one out in the fourth to No. 8 hitter Taylor Featherston and No. 9 hitter Jesus Sacre pulled a two-run home run down the left field line to make it 5-2. Then with two outs Corey Dickerson homered to make it 6-2.
The Reds bullpen of Lisalverto Bonilla, Tony Cingrani and newly recalled Ariel Hernandez shut the Rays down the rest of the way — 4 1/3 innings of three-hit pitching.
The Reds, though, couldn’t do much against Tampa Bay starter Alex Cobb, who shut them down on two runs (one of them was a gift) and eight hits over seven innings.
THE REDS SCORED A RUN in the eighth against Tommy Hunter, who struck out Eugenio Suarez and Scott Schebler to start the inning. But Devin Mesoraco doubled and Tucker Barnhart tripled to make it 6-3.
Then they nearly pulled it out in the ninth against Rays closer Alex Colome, who also got the first two outs of the inning.
But Joey Votto crushed his 20th home run, Adam Duvall doubled and Eugenio Suarez singled for a run to make it 6-5.
The game ended, though, when Colome struck out Scott Schebler, who was 0 for 5 with three strikeouts.
The top of the order was nearly helpless for the Reds on this night. Until Votto homered in the ninth, the top three of Billy Hamilton, Scooter Gennett and Votto was 0 for 12. Hamilton was 0 for 5, Gennett was 0 for 3 (he walked twice) and Votto was 1 for 5.
THE REDS SCORED A run in the second after they had two outs and nobody on — three straight singles by Mesoraco, Barnhart and Peraza.
Their second run came in the third, once again with two outs and nobody on. Adam Duvall hit a routine fly ball to left, but left fielder Corey Dickerson and center fielder Peter Bourjos, either of whom could have caught it, let it drop to the ground for a triple. Peraza then singled him him for a 2-0 lead that Garrett couldn’t protect.
Garrett is 0-and-4 in his last six starts and the Reds have lost all six. Overall, Garrett is 3-and-6 with a 7.41 earned run average. Because of starts like that, the Reds lead the league in walks issued and the starting pitchers are last in the league in earned run average.