After laboring early, Greene endures first subpar start of '25

BALTIMORE -- A 29-pitch first inning. A 30-pitch second inning. Home runs, walks and hit batsmen. Add it all up and Hunter Greene's electric beginning of 2025 had the plug pulled by the Orioles on Saturday afternoon.

Greene, who had a 0.98 ERA over his first four starts, endured his first subpar start of the season while lasting three innings during a 9-5 loss at Camden Yards.

“Command was not great today. Obviously, it’s a good hitting team. You’ve got to be able to execute your pitches and I fell short of that today," Greene said. "And to not be able to provide on the side of my responsibility -- it’s tough watching that all the way through. I feel for the guys today. I put them in a really tough position early on even though they were swinging it."

Greene gave up five earned runs and six hits -- including three homers -- with two walks, two hit batters and four strikeouts. That made his ERA jump to 2.35 with a 2-2 record.

The rough outing didn't just affect the outcome on Saturday but the consequences will bleed into Sunday as well. Carson Spiers -- who was scheduled to start the series finale -- worked four innings of relief.

"We had three relievers that weren’t available today. We were kind of up against it," manager Terry Francona said. “I felt bad about it. But we’ve got to be able to get through a game tomorrow and then we don’t have a day off on Monday, so we just had to wear it.”

The Reds scored a run in the top of the first inning, but Baltimore wasted no time making sure Greene would have a bad day. His 18 2/3 scoreless innings streak ended when his first two batters of the game -- Cedric Mullins and Gunnar Henderson -- jumped the right-hander with back-to-back homers for a 2-1 Orioles lead.

A Jake Fraley leadoff homer and TJ Friedl's RBI double put the Reds back ahead in the top of the second inning. But Greene gave up a pair of doubles in the bottom half, including Henderson's RBI hit that scored the tying run. In the third inning following a leadoff walk, Baltimore took the lead for good on Ramón Laureano's two-run homer to left field on a 1-0 Greene slider.

“I thought there were a lot of pitches up," Francona said. "There was a split that got hit. A breaking ball that Laureano hit. Just a lot of middle-up [pitches].”

With Greene having 77 pitches through three innings, Francona went to Taylor Rogers for the fourth inning.

"I actually think throwing that amount of pitches in three innings is just way harder than maybe going seven," Francona said. "That’s why we got him out of there. As hard as it was to do because of where we are with our bullpen, we couldn’t leave him out.”

Once Spiers entered for the fifth inning, Francona was going to ride with him no matter what -- and did just that. He initially kept Baltimore from adding on while retiring eight of his first 10 batters without a hit allowed.

The Orioles finally got to Spiers with back-to-back two-out homers by Laureano and Jordan Westburg in the seventh inning. Two walks to open the eighth inning led to add-on runs. Pitching coach Derek Johnson made multiple mound visits to keep encouraging his pitcher.

“He wore it like a trooper. He was out of gas," Francona said of Spiers, who threw 94 pitches over four innings. "I knew it and D.J. knew it and there wasn’t really anything we could do about it. That’s not a good feeling.”

Greene made a point of praising Spiers' effort to try and pick him up.

“I didn’t help by putting him in that position, but he showed a lot of heart today," Greene said. "He kept the guys in it as long as he could. He’s done that multiple times. I just wanted to highlight his part of the game. Even though he gave up some runs, he showed a lot of character and heart and he’s been very consistent in that space.”

Cincinnati will need to make a roster move to call up a new starter for Sunday -- most likely from Triple-A Louisville. It won't be No. 6 prospect Chase Petty, however. Petty, who is ranked No. 99 overall by MLB Pipeline, started on Friday.

“We’re going to reconfigure a little bit," Francona said.