None of this happened overnight for San Francisco. This is a club that's dropped 4 straight, watching a roster that already had holes get thinner by the week. Cincinnati's not exactly steamrolling either — the Reds have alternated getting run out of the ballpark and running up the score themselves in their last few outings — but the shape of the roster gap here is hard to miss.
Burns has quietly authored one of the better rookie pitching seasons around, working at least 6 strikeouts in 4 straight starts entering Tuesday. Cincinnati's still technically alive in the wild-card picture, but the deficit is real, and nights like this one carry as much weight for next year's rotation plans as they do for this year's standings.
Whisenhunt's stuff has backed up as the season's worn on — his last look had him sitting under 93 mph on the fastball and getting just a single swinging strike on nearly 30 of them. If that trend holds at Oracle Park, where the marine layer usually keeps hitters honest, San Francisco's staff has its work cut out just keeping this competitive into the middle innings.