From the very beginning of the Pirates' series opener against the Reds tonight at Great American Ball Park, it seemed they'd have to climb out of a significant hole. 

Bailey Falter struggled with his command on a cold April night, Endy Rodriguez made a costly throwing error and the Reds scored five runs on one hit in the early going before prevailing, 5-3.

"Any deficit at all is challenging to build out of," Derek Shelton said. "But the fact that we didn't play effective baseball because of the fact that we didn't throw strikes and then we threw a ball down the line, it makes it challenging."

Falter's inability to limit walks set the tone for what the Pirates struggled with on this particular night. He got himself into deep counts against TJ Friedl and Blake Dunn before 3-2 counts turned into back-to-back walks. A four-pitch walk to Elly De La Cruz loaded the bases before Falter induced a ground ball off the bat of Spencer Steer, a hitter who entered tonight with seven hits in 13 career at-bats against the left-hander. 

The Pirates traded a run for two outs and Falter looked to be in a spot to potentially limit the damage. Then, Falter got behind 2-0 to Jeimer Candelario and left a 91-mph fastball on the outer third of the plate. Candelario didn't miss it, sending it out to left field for a two-run shot to make it a three-run game: 

Falter threw 12 of 27 pitches for strikes in the first inning and did settle down enough to get through five innings. His final line wasn't pretty as he allowed five runs (three earned) on three hits with a career-high five walks and four strikeouts. He also threw two wild pitches to add to his erratic performance. 

"Five walks, just can't happen," said Falter, who also took accountability following his last start when he allowed seven runs in four innings against the Yankees. "I think probably a career-high for me, which is unfortunate. Just had no feel in the first inning, honestly."

Falter said he didn't have a feel for his fastball in particular, which is his bread-and-butter pitch. When he's on with that and can use his off-speed stuff as complementary pieces, then he's capable of being effective. Later in the game, he was able to find a feel for it and settle down. That was evident in the second inning when he threw seven of 10 pitches for strikes and set the bottom of the Reds' lineup down in order. 

"I've been through it before, honestly. I just gotta go out there and do my best to give these guys at least a chance to win, and that's that," Falter said. "I feel like it's always just one inning right now. We've gotta figure it out and see what we can do."

Falter's other two walks came in the third inning when Rodriguez's blunder led to the Reds securing further separation. Falter allowed a one-out walk to Dunn, but he was erased by a fielder's choice off the bat of De La Cruz. A walk to Steer put runners on first and second before a wild pitch put them on the move again. Rodriguez attempted to corral the loose ball and delivered a throw to third in an attempt to gun down De La Cruz, who previously stole second base. Instead, he sent one wide of Ke'Bryan Hayes at third and the ball sailed down the line and into the left-field corner, allowing De La Cruz to score easily and Steer to come hustling in for a five-run cushion: 

"I think he just rushed it a little bit," Shelton said. "Knowing that it was Elly at second going to third, that's probably a ball we've just got to eat. It looked like on the throw he hit himself with a mask, too, and that looks like that kind of cut him off. That would probably be a play, with Elly running, it's gonna be hard to get him there."

Rodriguez quickly acknowledged the fact that his mask hindered his ability to get the throw off and said he didn't regret making the throw rather than holding off. 

"I couldn't stop my arm because it was in full motion," Rodriguez said. "As we know, it's more dangerous to try to stop the arm, rather than just letting it go. So, I just tried to get it to a position where Ke' could handle it, but I couldn't do that."

Rodriguez's defensive miscue was coupled with a rough showing at the plate and on the bases. He struck out twice, including against Emilio Pagan in the ninth when he went down looking at a 2-2 fastball on the outer edge, and was caught trying to stretch a single into a double in the sixth. 

It was evident Rodriguez was trying to get into scoring position and spark the team with two outs in the inning. The Pirates had just scored three runs in the fifth and were held hitless for the first 4 1/3 innings. Still, instead of accomplishing his goal, the inning came to a quick end and the offense -- one that collected four hits on this night and has scored just 48 runs on 91 hits in 134 innings over 14 games -- couldn't provide sufficient support to rally back.

The Pirates are 5-9.