Mike Minor has a rocky Cincinnati Reds debut in a loss to the Nationals

The most aggressive move that the Cincinnati Reds made in the offseason was trading for starting pitcher Mike Minor and making him the third-highest paid player on the roster.

Even though the 34-year-old left-hander had a 5.05 ERA last season, Minor entered the season motivated to prove he was still a quality starting pitcher. Now one-third of the way into the season, Minor still has a lot left to prove.

Minor made his season debut for the Reds at Great American Ball Park on Friday. He took the loss as the Washington Nationals beat the Reds, 8-5, in front of a crowd of 19,032. Minor allowed five runs in four innings, and he was pulled from the game after throwing just 60 pitches.

"This wasn’t the way I wanted it to go," Minor said. "I was glad to get out there, glad to compete. You’ve got to start somewhere."

After missing the first two months of the season with a shoulder injury, Minor started the game strong with an eight-pitch first inning. Following that inning, the Nationals consistently made hard contact against him. While Minor was attacking the strike zone and working to keep an efficient pitch count, the Nationals jumped on the early count strikes.

"I think I threw two curveballs the whole night," Minor said. "Mainly, it was just my fastball and changeup. With big league guys, you’ve got to mix it a little bit more. And my fastball was leaking over (the plate) a little bit. They hit some good ones and the ones (down the) middle, they really hit."

Minor’s start began to unravel in the second inning when he allowed a homer to Nationals designated hitter Nelson Cruz on a changeup right down the middle. Then in the third inning, the game spiraled away.

Minor located two fastballs over the heart of the plate, which led to a double and a homer. The Nationals added another home run in the inning to take a 5-2 lead. By the end of the third, long reliever Vladimir Gutierrez was already warming up in the Reds bullpen.

"I know he expected more out of himself tonight but it takes some time to settle in, and he’s going to be fine," Reds manager David Bell said. "He’s healthy, and that’s the main thing.”

Minor rebounded with a scoreless fourth inning, but he still allowed a double in that inning on a fastball right down the middle. As Minor kept locating pitches over the middle, the Nationals hitters took advantage.

Even though Minor threw only 60 pitches, Bell pulled him at the start of the fifth inning to put Gutierrez in the game. It was a much shorter outing than Minor said he was expecting.

“He wasn’t as sharp as we know he can be," Bell said. "We were doing everything we could to stay in the game. Plus being his first time out, there’s some benefit at keeping him to a lower pitch count. The next time, when he’s sharper and feeling better, we can push him a little bit further.”

Reds left fielder Tommy Pham spotted the Reds a 2-0 lead with a home run to center field in the first inning. Pham has missed time over the last week due to suspension and a calf injury, but he showed on this swing why he’s the No. 3 hitter in the Reds lineup.

Pham crushed a fastball to straight-away center field, and it landed just over the fence and the outstretched glove of Nationals center fielder Victor Robles. Pham hit his seventh home run of the season, but that couldn’t match the Nationals’ offense as Washington left fielder Lane Thomas had three home runs.

Thomas entered Friday’s game with a .195 batting average and three home runs all season. Against the Reds, Thomas homered three times in one game, and he accounted for three of Washington’s five home runs on Friday.

Reds first baseman Joey Votto hit a three-run home run in the eighth inning, continuing his two-week stretch as one of the most productive hitters in MLB. With that swing, Votto picked up his 2,048th career hit, which tied him with Johnny Bench for the fourth-most in Reds history. But Votto’s home run only made it an 8-5 game, and the Nationals closed out the game and got the win.

"You’ll have bad ones," Minor said. "You can’t really dwell on that."

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Mike Minor had a rocky debut for Reds as Lane Thomas hits three homers