The score is misleading. The Reds trailed, 8-1, after eight innings and staged one of their many ninth-inning rallies that falls short.
They scored four in the ninth and had two on with two outs and Elly De La Cruz at the plate. A home run would tie it. He grounded to second to end it.
The Reds faced left-hander Patrtick Corbin, who walked to the mound with a 1-9 record, the highest earned run average (5.57) of any MLB starter and the highest opponent’s batting average of any starter.
And the Reds scored one run and produced three meager singles against Corbin during his six innings, helping him celebrate his 35th birthday.
Meanwhile, Reds manager David Bell started Frankie Montas, his starting pitcher with the worst record (4-7) and highest earned run average (4.38).
Corbin helped the Nationals start the second half with a win after they lost six of eight before the break. Entering the game Corbin was 17-33 over his last 82 starts over 3 1/2 seasons.
He probably wondered if maybe he should have stuck to basketball. In high school he could dunk effortlessly and set a school record with eight three-pointers in one game.
On Friday, he stuffed the Reds.
For three innings, Montas was in control — no runs, no hits and two walks.
The Reds gave him a 1-0 lead in the third on Stuart Fairchild’s single and stolen base (after he was picked off first, but made it to second) and a run-scoring single by Jonathan India.
After issuing back-to-back walks in the first, Montas retired nine straight. But he walked former Reds outfielder Jesse Winker on a full count. Juan Yepez singled and the runners took third and second on a wild pitch.
James Wood, a 21-year-old rookie, pushed a two-run single past first base and the Nationals led, 2-1.
It quickly became 4-1 when Keibert Ruiz pulled a two-run home run into the the right field seats.
The ugliness worsened in the fifth when Montas gave up a two-out, three-run home run to Yepez and it was 7-1.
The Reds handed the Nationals another run in the seventh. Jacob Young opened with a double off Buck Farmer. He stole third, his second theft of the night and 22nd of the season.
With two outs, Winker was walked intentionally, the fourth straight time he reached base. He stole second and continued to third on catcher Tyler Stephenson’s error that enabled Young to score Washington’s eighth run.
Winker, one of baseball’s slowest runners when he played for the Reds, shed 25 pounds and he has stolen 14 bases this season. Washington swiped five bases.
As so often happens with the Reds when they are getting their doors blown off, they staged an uprising in the ninth.
They scored a pair of runs on a two-run double by Austin Slater, his second hit in 14 at bats since the Reds acquired him in a trade with the San Francisco Giants.
After Slater’s double, the Nationals brought in former Reds relief pitcher Derek Law and he did the near-impossible. He walked Noelvi Marte, Marte’s second walk this season in 71 plate appearances.
With two on, Rece Hinds struck out. He doubled in the eighth, but he has cooled off — only 1 for his last 9.
Pinch-hitter Jake Fraley doubled for two more runs and it was 8-5, forcing Washington manager Dave Martinez to bring in his closer, Kyle Finnegan, to face India with two outs and a runner on second.
Finnegan, an All-Star, walked India on a full count, bringing the potential tying run to the plate in De La Cruz. De La Cruz extended his hitting streak to seven games with an infield single in the sixth.
De La Cruz worked it to a full count before he grounded to second to end it, 8-5.
It was the first game of a nine-game trip through Washington, Atlanta and Tampa Bay that takes the Reds to the July 31 trade deadline.
The results probably will determine whether the Reds seek help with trades or dump players or remain status quo.
The awful start to the trip does not bode well for the Reds, now four games under .500 (47-51) and 8 1/2 games behind Milwaukee in the National League Central.
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