Leave it to the Reds. Only they seem capable of turning a 3-3 road trip into a total disaster.
And that's exactly what the team from Ohio accomplished when, after a promising start to a Western swing, it completely fell apart and suffered through the indignity of being swept by the lowly San Diego Padres this past weekend.
The Reds should be embarrassed and ashamed. They should be red-faced. It's a good thing the players had an off-day on Monday because they needed the down time to wipe all the eggs from their faces.
If this wasn't humiliation, it was a mighty good facsimile of it. Losing a trio of games to the reeling Pads was flat out inexcusable. Disgraceful doesn't seem too strong a word in describing the effort Cincy put forth in what is known as America's Finest City. This rates as an undeniable low.
And all this futility after it looked like the Reds were prepared to validate themselves, to prove they were a team ready to be competitive over the long haul.
Having completed a three-game sweep of Arizona on Wednesday night, Cinchy appeared poised to go on a bit of a roll. The club was riding high and the chance to maintain their momentum seemed promising given the fact that the Reds would be taking on a Padre team that was scuffling badly, with the Friars having dropped six straight games.
The Reds were probably licking their chops. They had to be salivating. You've got to believe they couldn't wait to board the short flight to So-Cal. This was an opportunity to really make some hay.
What's more, the Reds, defying all conventional wisdom, arrived at Lindbergh Field actually leading the Central Division of the National League. If ever there was a statement series, this was it. By beating the lowly Padres, Cincy could keep the flow going and build on a confidence that seemed to be growing substantially.
But instead of stepping up, the Reds basically caved in. They capitulated. And in a matter of three days, they literally went from the penthouse to the outhouse. All the good vibes that the team had generated were wiped out in one lost weekend.
Don't be surprised if the hangover from this debacle is hard to shake. The Reds played as if they had tied one on in Tijuana. What befell them was worse than being bedeviled by a bout of Montezuma's Revenge.
What makes the Reds' San Diego implosion all the more galling is that two of the games were literally given away while the third amounted to nothing more than a meek surrender. The Padres revealed the Reds to be nothing more than pretenders and pretty inept ones at that.
Cincinnati's unraveling began rather innocently enough. Well into Friday night's game, things looked rather encouraging for the visitors from the 'Nati. The Reds had staked the slimmed down Aaron Harang to a 3-1 lead.
When given such a margin, a team has the strong expectation that the supposed ace of their rotation will preserve it. Alas, Harang didn't live up to his end of the bargain. After permitting a run in the sixth, the 6-7 right-hander collapsed an inning later and was eventually charged with all the runs in a 5-3 defeat.
When the big horse of your staff falters and can't get the job done in a pivotal game, it can send a chilling message to the rest of the team. Harang's failure helped set in motion the catastrophe that was about to follow.
But if Harang's meltdown was disheartening, then the one that reliever David Weathers experienced was downright disillusioning. Inheriting a 5-3 cushion with a runner on board, the set-up man came completely unglued. He messed up big-time by getting dinged for a double and walking three batters.
Judging by Weathers' reactions to what was happening, he thought he was being squeezed by the home plate umpire. But squeezed or not, issuing three free passes is beyond unforgivable.
By the time the fire that Weathers had ignited was put out, the Pads had leveled the score and it was a brand new ballgame.
Say what you will about the reputed positives that Weathers brings to the table, namely doing yeoman's work and having a rubber arm. But in his years with the Reds, this guy has blown a disturbing amount of games. His latest stumble merely added to a lengthy list.
And though Weathers was the most conspicuous villain on this night, the Reds' hitters also deserved plenty of the blame. Yes, Joey Votto's absence due to dizziness hurt but even without their standout first baseman, the Reds should be able to mount some kind of attack against an inferior foe.
Against one of the poorer and most vulnerable bullpens in baseball, Cincy went an astonishing 10 innings without scoring, never really threatening during that span.
The net result of all this ineptitude? A heartbreaking 6-5 loss in 16 innings. It brought to mind another gut-wrenching setback Cincy suffered the year before at the same Petco Park.
In that one, the Reds were forced to go even longer, 18 innings to be exact, before walking off frustrated losers. When it comes to the Reds, extra innings and Petco Park, that's proving to be a frightening combination.
So having literally handed the Pads two gift-wrapped victories, you just knew the Reds wouldn't recoup from such self-inflicted wounds. And the fact that righty Jake Peavy would be pitching for the Padres in the finale, only added to the Reds' burden.
You see, there are certain pitchers that just seem to own the Reds, Roy Oswalt being the prime example of this mastery. The talented Peavy is clearly among this Reds-killer brigade. While it would be exaggeration to say that Cincy tanks for these hurlers, it can't be refuted that their resistance against the aforementioned is hardly stout. It borders on the meek and the passive.
So it was more than predictable that Peavy would toy with his whippings boys from the Queen City. He mowed them down without having to break much of a sweat, allowing just four hits while fanning eight.
The subsequent 3-1 Pad win put the Reds in a total funk and dropped them all the way down to fourth place in the division.
Coming off the series versus Arizona, the Reds were almost giddy about their prospects. But the Padres quickly burst their bubble and brought them crashing back to earth. One of the worst teams in the game had hung a damaging trifecta on the Reds. These losses were both depressing and demoralizing.
Though to be potential conquerors, the Reds left San Diego with their tails positioned firmly between their legs.
How Cincy responds to this takedown is anyone's guess. Will they rebound or will they start another rapid descent into irrelevance?
But one thing is for certain. Any talk about the Reds being a legit player in the Central Division has been put to bed. It has ceased. They were clearly exposed in San Diego, almost as if they got caught with their plants down.
The Reds' bordertown breakdown makes all the doubts, questions and skepticism surrounding this team rise right back to the surface. Good teams just don't throwup all over themselves like Cincy did in So-Cal. Doing it once is more than enough. Another such meltdown and look for the Reds to begin evaporating right before your eyes.