Brady Singer Not Happy After Another Short Outing Against Cardinals

Cincinnati Reds starter Brady Singer did not try to dance around anything after Friday night's 10-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.

The right-hander lasted just four-plus innings, walking three batters and needing 89 pitches to get through it.

When he spoke to reporters afterward, Singer was about as honest as it gets.

"There's a lot of ups and downs," Singer said. "Getting kicked in the teeth right now, obviously, but just keep trying to figure out different ways to pitch our way out of it. It's gonna get better at some point, but obviously it's a rough patch. Not happy with it, but just keep working on stuff."

Through 12 starts this season, Singer carries a 5.89 ERA with a 2-6 record and just two quality starts in 55 innings.

He has allowed 74 hits, 17 home runs and 19 walks while striking out only 42 batters.

For a pitcher the Reds signed to a one-year, $12.75 million deal in January, the returns have been really difficult to stomach.

May was especially ugly, as Singer went 0-4 with a 7.77 ERA across all five of his starts.

The Reds have not won a game he has started since April 25, a skid that now stretches over six weeks, and the numbers during that run have been alarming.

Since that last win he has given up 19 earned runs in 22 innings while allowing 11 home runs, with his sinker sitting up in the zone far too often and his breaking ball catching too much of the plate against left-handed hitters.

When the Reds acquired Singer from the Kansas City Royals ahead of the 2025 season, the plan was for him to be a reliable middle-of-the-rotation arm they could count on every fifth day.

He lived up to that last year, posting a 4.03 ERA over 32 starts with 163 strikeouts in 169.2 innings, the kind of durability Cincinnati needed with Greene out.

But 2026 has been a completely different story.

The home run ball has wrecked him, and his HR/9 rate has more than doubled from any prior season of his career.

His ground ball rate has continued to slide after hitting a career low last year, and in a contract year before he hits free agency this winter, the timing of this downturn could not be worse.

Cincinnati sits at 31-30 on the season and is fighting to stay in the mix in a competitive NL Central, but the pitching depth is being tested with Greene, Rhett Lowder and Brandon Williamson all on the injured list.

The Reds need Singer to find something, and the fact that he is still in the rotation tells you everything about how thin this staff is.

Singer said his stuff felt decent on Friday and that his confidence is growing even if the results are not showing it yet.

Cincinnati will keep running him out there because they simply do not have a better option.