Sal Stewart Sums Up the Cincinnati Reds' Free Fall in One Quote

Sal Stewart is not the guy to dress things up, and after the Cincinnati Reds dropped another close game in San Diego on Monday night, the rookie first baseman gave the most honest reflection of his team's situation anyone has offered all month.

"It feels tough right now," Stewart said. "It feels like we're treading in quicksand a little bit. I feel like we're right there in games, but they're not going our way. I feel like we just have to stay the course."

That just about captures where things are.

The Reds lost 6-2 to the Padres on Monday in a game that stayed close until a strange seventh inning, when San Diego laid down three straight bunts Cincinnati could not handle and pushed the losing streak to five.

The standings are where it gets bleak. Cincinnati has lost nine of its last 11 and sits at 31-34, fifth in the National League Central, after opening June 1-6.

They spent stretches of April looking like one of the better teams in the league, and now they are back under .500.

The St. Louis sweep right before this trip stung, and the pattern keeps repeating.

They hang around, give themselves a chance, and let the game slip away late. The Padres improved to 34-31 with only their third win in 14 tries.

Andrew Abbott gave the Reds six solid innings on Monday and deserved better.

He and Chase Burns are the only starters the team can count on, but the bullpen and defense keep handing games back, and those small mistakes are the ones sinking a team like this.

The cruel twist is that Stewart himself has cooled off after a start that had Reds fans dreaming big.

He won National League Rookie of the Month for March and April, hitting .281 with nine home runs and 29 RBI while drawing comparisons to some of the best young hitters in the game.

His season line has since settled to .254 with 12 home runs and an .803 OPS.

Those are strong numbers for a 22-year-old in his first full year, but they belong to a hitter riding the ups and downs of a long season.

Stewart admitted recently that he had been trying to fix everything in one swing, and Terry Francona has stuck with him through it.

The interesting part is that the rookie who is scuffling is also the one willing to say out loud what the room is feeling.

The Reds are not getting blown out most nights.

They are losing the tight ones, the games that flip on a bunt or a missed chance with a runner on, and that is a harder thing to fix than a slump because it has more to do with confidence than talent.

For a team still chasing a second straight playoff trip, the next two or three weeks will say a lot about which version is real.