Jun 7, 2026; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; Cincinnati Reds manager Terry Francona (77) walks off the field during the eighth inning against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images

The Cincinnati Reds had a dreadful month of May after a historic April.

Any hopes of finding a balance in June is looking like wishful thinking.

On Sunday, the Reds were swept by the St.

Louis Cardinals, moving their record in June to 1-3.

To make matters worse, the loss to the Cardinals also moved the Reds to 2-13 against National League Central foes.

There's a lot of doom and gloom going around this team at the moment, and 700WLW Sports Talk radio host Lance McAlister shared a stat on X after Sunday's game that will even bring more gloom to your day.

Brutal Stretch According to McAlister, Sunday's game in St.

Louis was the 14th time this season the Reds lost a game in which they had a lead, and the 12th time this happened since May 2nd.

If you're looking for a reason as to why the Reds had such a downright rotten May, it's probably because they couldn't hang onto a lead to save their life.

Baseball is the ultimate team game.

That means the Reds getting to two games under .500 was a joint effort.

Let's dive into that can of worms, shall we? What Pen? We've gotten to the point where some of the Reds starters will need to go the distance in order to win a game.

On Sunday against the Cardinals, manager Terry Francona called on Chris Paddack for some relief.

Paddack's season as a starter has been uninspiring, and his chance to come out of the bullpen may have been even worse.

Paddack allowed three runs in the loss to the Cardinals.

Not to put this all on Paddack, but he's fitting right in with the rest of the relief pitching for the Reds.

There's not one arm the Reds can trust in the pen right now, and that's not a problem a postseason aspiring team should have in June.

What Can Fix This? If you told fans before the game on Sunday that Tyler Stephenson and Matt McLain would both hit home runs, many would probably think the Reds cruised to a victory.

Sadly, that wasn't the case.

This offense has not been what many expected from them; however, a game like Sunday proved the juice is there.

Unfortunately, three runs aren't going to be enough for this team to win a game with the current state of the bullpen.

The Reds may have to lie in the mess made by their roster construction.

Tyler Reed graduated from the University of Kentucky, where he majored in communications.

Before covering the Reds, Tyler spent time covering the NFL for On SI as well as working with The Big Lead.

Follow tylerreed93.

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