This young Cincinnati Reds team needs to find a restart point, and quickly. The Reds are currently struggling a bit, but have found momentum recently in a win against the Mariners. Recently, the Reds acquired the services of Harrison Bader and Hunter Renfroe, giving the Reds some much needed offensive help during their pitching struggles.
The Reds are currently 5 games back from first in the NL Central, which means that it’ll be an uphill battle for this young team. I personally think that the Reds will end up not turning things around, simply because they are running out of reliable pitching and that’s a very bad thing for them. Eventually, I feel like the pitching situation will catch up with this team and even with a high-powered offense like the Reds, starting pitching is key to winning games in this league.
Not only that, but they also have several injuries on offense, such as Jake Fraley who’s been a good bat for the team this year. They could have used a player like Eugenio Suarez during this time, who hits a lot of homeruns and drives in lots of runs for the offense.
Currently, this young team is in a bit of a predicament. They don’t have enough reliable starting pitching, and their offense really hasn’t been on fire like it once was. I feel like their recent success has been a little bit like lightning in a bottle and they’ve been getting a bit lucky. Even if this Reds team makes the playoffs, it’s really hard to tell how they’ll perform in the Wild Card.
This Reds team currently sits tied with Arizona for that coveted third NL Wild Card spot. If the MLB season ended today, they would currently be tasked with facing the Phillies in a 2 game series showdown. The Phillies haven’t exactly been the best team in the National League, but they could certainly cause the Reds some major problems with their pitching. And if the Reds want any chance of catching up to the Cubs or Brewers, they’re going to have to be sure to win their next few series.
Statistically, Reds hitting has not been very productive over the past month. They’ve only been hitting around .245, which is definitely not a playoff caliber offense to me. The only thing that’s saved this young Reds team from losing a lot of games this month is the great pitching performance of Brandon Williamson. He currently sits with a 2.70 ERA this month, which is pretty well below the league average. Even though he is 1-2 with only 5 games played, he’s been a productive pitcher for the Reds this month so far and has managed to keep them in games.
In terms of run support for the Reds hitters, TJ Friedl and star Elly De La Cruz currently lead the Reds in runs with 15 and 14 runs this month respectively. They’ve had a decent amount of runs scored this month so far, with the offense picking up it’s pace a bit. In reality, they’ve done just enough to stay alive in the Wild Card race, so it will be a tightly run thing for this Reds team.
They need to finish September strong in order to even have a chance at making the playoffs, and hope that the Marlins and D-backs start struggling.
