SAN FRANCISCO — If the Cincinnati Reds plan to survive the injury loss of Matt McLain and still be within an Elly De La Cruz throw of the playoff race, that starts with the same thing everything else in baseball starts with: Starting pitching.
And if the opener of another key series in San Francisco suggested anything about that subject around these parts it’s that the Reds well might finally be about to run dry.
Another short start Monday night by rookie Andrew Abbott set the tone in a 4-1 loss to the Giants and continued a trend making it look increasingly as though one of the better rookie pitchers in the league this year has finally hit a workload wall.