The Cincinnati Reds spent the first half of the week looking like a team ready to force its way back into the National League playoff conversation.

By Sunday afternoon, nearly all of that momentum was gone.

Cincinnati went 3-3 from Aug. 3 through Aug. 9, sweeping the Athletics at Great American Ball Park before getting swept by the Washington Nationals. The Reds ended the week at 56-61, still alive mathematically but facing a much steeper climb in the NL Wild Card race.

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The frustrating part is how quickly everything changed.

After an off day Monday, Cincinnati opened its week Tuesday with a dramatic 5-4 victory over the Athletics. Elly De La Cruz and Sal Stewart helped set up a chaotic eighth inning in which the Reds scored twice on wild pitches to erase a late deficit.

That win started something.

On Wednesday, Matt McLain homered and José Trevino delivered an RBI single as Cincinnati squeezed out a 3-2 victory. Then the Reds completed the sweep Thursday with a 6-5 win powered by four home runs, including another big swing from De La Cruz.

At that point, Cincinnati had won six of seven games.

For a team trying to stay within striking distance of the Wild Card, it felt significant.

Then came Washington.

The Nationals stopped Cincinnati’s momentum immediately Friday with a 5-3 victory. The Reds actually hit three solo home runs, with Eugenio Suárez, McLain and De La Cruz all going deep. McLain and De La Cruz hit back-to-back homers in the third inning to erase an early deficit, but Cincinnati couldn’t finish the comeback.

Saturday was worse.

Rookie right-hander Chase Burns entered the game riding a 12-game winning streak, but Washington broke through against him and eventually pulled away for an 8-2 victory. Suárez homered again, but the Reds’ offense couldn’t generate enough traffic around him to make the game competitive late.

Sunday turned a disappointing series into a brutal one.

Cincinnati grabbed an early 1-0 lead but managed only four hits in a 7-1 loss. Brady Singer allowed three runs over six innings, and Washington steadily pulled away after the Reds failed to build on their early advantage.

The Nationals outscored Cincinnati 20-6 during the three-game sweep.

That’s the number that defines the weekend.

The Reds left Cincinnati looking like a team with real momentum. They left Washington on a three-game losing streak and with their postseason odds taking another hit.

There were still encouraging developments during the week.

De La Cruz continued to provide power and reached the 20-home-run mark. McLain showed signs of becoming a difference-maker again in the middle of the lineup. Suárez homered twice in Washington, and the offense demonstrated during the Oakland series that it can generate enough power to change games quickly.

But Cincinnati’s biggest issue remains consistency.

The Reds can’t afford to follow three-game winning streaks with three-game losing streaks this deep into the season. At 56-61 and six games back of the final NL Wild Card spot, there simply isn’t enough schedule remaining to repeatedly give back ground.

That makes the next few weeks critical.

Cincinnati doesn’t need to be perfect, but it does need to start stacking series wins. The Reds showed against Oakland that they’re capable of putting together a meaningful run.

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Washington showed just how quickly that progress can disappear.

The Reds are still hanging around the NL playoff picture.

But after wasting a golden opportunity this weekend, the margin for error is getting dangerously thin.