By Hal McCoy
No matter what uniform they wear — white, gray black or red — nothing seems to change for the Cincinnati Reds.
They wore gray Wednesday and lost in New York to the Mets.
They wore black Friday night and lost to the Atlanta Braves.
And they wore red Saturday night and lost again to the Braves, 5-2.
Clothes don’t make the man, nor do they make a baseball team.
The Braves unloaded the heavy lumber on the Reds in Great American Ball Park Saturday, four home runs, tying Atlanta’s most this season.
Two came off the suddenly smoking bat of Ronald Acuna Jr. After hitting only two homers in the first 42 games, Acuna has four in the last three games, three in the first two games of this three-game series.
Reds starter Brady Singer was victimized twice and has thrown too many pitches down the center aisle, eight home runs in his last 12 innings.
The Reds, sole occupants of last place in the National League Central, have lost three straight and are one game over .500 (29-28).
The Braves grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Ozzie Albies led with a double and scored on Mike Yastrzemski’s two-out single.
Cincinnati’s one productive inning came in the second against Atlanta’s 35-year-old 15-year veteran left-hander Martin Perez (3-3).
With one out he walked Spencer Steer and JJ Bleday blasted another home run to give the Reds a 2-1 lead.
Falling behind doesn’t bother the Braves (40-19). They’ve come from behind to win games 20 times this season.
And they did it again on their way to their 23rd road victory against only nine losses.
It began with Acuna’s first home run leading off the third on Singer’s first pitch. It was an opposite field lob that barely cleared the wall and landed in the front row of the right field seats.
That tied it, 2-2, but a home run bvy Jorge Mateo in the fifth, an upper deck blast to left, pushed the Braves ahead, 3-2.
Then the Braves added on against the Reds bullpen, Matt Olsen’s jolt over the center field wall in the seventh against Brock Burke and Acuna’s second homer, a drive over the center field wall in the ninth against just-recalled Lyon Richardson that made it 5-2.
Richardson’s call-up came after another Reds bullpenner, Pierce Johnson, went on the injured list to join relief pitchers Emilio Pagan and Graham Ashcraft.
The Reds mustered only five hits, two by Bleday, and had few opportunities.
Elly De La Cruz tripled with one out in the third, but Sal Stewart grounded to thirde and Eugenio Suarez struck out.
Spencer Steer opened the fourth with a single, but Bleday hit into a double play.
Bleday led the seventh with a single, but the next three Reds went down 1-2-3.
Too add to the frustration, former Reds closer Raisel Iglesias pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his 28th straight save.
Atlanta’s bullpen of Tyler Kinley, Dylan Lee, Robert Suarez and Iglesias pitched four innings and gave up no runs, one hit, no walks and struck out four.
The Braves bullpen retired 12 of the last 13 with Bleday’s single in the seventh the only blemish.
Singer (2-5, 6.18) pitched five innings and gave up three runs and only four hits, but two left the premises.
“I thought early the ball was coming out of his hand better than we’ve seen it, which is good,” Reds manager Tito Francona said about Singer.
“When he makes a mistake, he’s been paying for it and that’s a pretty dangerous team over there.”
Johnson was placed on the injured list after trying to throw before the game but had discomfort.
“After the second day in New York, his elbow was a little cranky,” said Francona. “We stayed away from him for a couple of days. He was going to try to throw today but he just wasn’t feeling better.
“It just didn’t make sense to wait another day and have him pitch once and then feel bad again. That’s not fair,” Francona added.
Team physician Dr. Tim Kremchek gave Johnson an injection and told Francona, “He’s going to be just fine, he just needs a little blow.”
Dane Myers was originally in the lineup, batting leadoff, but came to the park in bad shape.
“I would say it was intestinal turmoil,” said Francona. “He is really sick. He tried, but he just wasn’t getting better. They think it might be food poisoning, so we sent him home.”
Francona re-arranged his lineup card and returned Blake Dunn to the leadoff spot. He doubled with two outs in the fifth, but Atlanta shortstop Jorge Mateo made an acrobatic stop on De La Cruz’s hard smash and threw him out.