The hope was that the two would inject some instant offense into a team that is leaking oil, a lot of it due to four regulars residing on the injured list — Jonathan India, Jake Fraley (who came off Friday), Matt McLain and Joey Votto.
They made zero contributions in a 6-2 loss to the Cubs in the first game of a doubleheader in Great American Ball Park.
They combined to go 0 for 7. Bader was 0 for 3 with two weak fly balls to right and a weak ground ball to shortstop. He is 4 for his last 47. Renfroe was 0 for 4 with two ground balls and two fly balls.
They were just part of an offense that is sputtering like an eight-cylinder automobile grinding on five cylinders.
The Reds managed only seven hits, all singles, and were 2 for 11 with runners in scoring position and left 10 runners standing on base.
They put at least one runner on base in eight of the nine innings, but only one scored in the first eight innings and the second came in the ninth when the Cubs already had the game tucked in their tote bags.
The first half of the season script the Reds used, come-from-behind victories, has been misplaced.
And as has happened many times this season, the Reds were victimized by a rookie pitcher seemingly just a few months removed from junior high and still pink-cheeked.
Jordan Wicks turned 24 on this day and was making his second major-league start. After going 5-and-0 in Double-A and Triple-A this season, he is now 2-and-0 in the bigs.
In first start, he held the Pittsburgh Pirates to one run and two hits over six innings. He pitched only five innings Friday and held the Reds to one run and five hits.
The Reds tested his resolve in all five innings, and he only flinched once.
—Spencer Steer singled with one out in the first, but the next two Reds went down, with Renfroe grounding out to end it.
—Tyler Stephenson singled with two outs in the second and took second base on a wild pitch. Noelvi Marte walked to put two men on, but Stuart Fairchild struck out.
—Elly De La Cruz walked with two outs in the third and stole second. Renfroe lined out to left.
—The Reds broke through for a run in the fourth on Nick Senzel’s single, a walk to Stephenson and Marte’s single. That scored a run and put two on with one out. Fairchild popped to first and Bader grounded meekly to short.
— Steer led the fifth with a single and De La Cruz bunted him to second, but Steer stayed put while Renfroe flied to center and Christian Encarnacion-Strand struck out.
And so it went.
The Cubs took a 1-0 lead against Reds starter Graham Ashcraft (7-9) in the fourth with Cody Bellinger, a former MVP having another MVP-type season, lined one into the right field seats, his 21st home run.
Bellinger struck again in sixth behind a leadoff single by Nico Hoerner and a double by Ian Happ. Lucas Sims replaced Ashcraft and his first pitch to Bellinger was roped into right field, a two-run single.
Suzuki Seiya, 0 for his last12 at the time, homered into the left field seats off Daniel Duarte in the eighth to make it 4-1.
Ian Happ made it a foregone conclusion in the ninth with a two-run home run off Derek Law. Happ, who played collegiately at the University of Cincinnati, relaxes in GABP as if sitting in his own sunroom. The home run was his 17th in GABP.
And on Friday he had the home run, a double, a walk, two runs scored and two driven in.
The Reds are in desperate need of pitching, both starters and relief pitchers.
It became more desperate when the Reds had to close down starter Nick Lodolo and starter Hunter Greene landed on the COVID-19 injured list and will miss at least one start.
General manager Nick Krall tried to fix that, too, but was blocked by the Cleveland Guardians. For some reason, the 64-70 Guardians, five games behind Minnesota in the American League Central, claimed starter Lucas Giolito and relief pitchers Reynaldo Lopez and Matt Moore off waivers.
Krall said the Reds put in waivers for pitchers, probably Giolito and either Lopez or Moore. But because the Guardians own a worse record than the Reds, their claims took precedence.
And why did the Guardians do it? Do they really believe they can catch the Twins? Were they blocking Minnesota’s chance to claim one of those pitchers? Or both.
Whatever, the Reds were left with no September pitching help.
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