Photo courtesy of the Reds on X: https://x.com/Reds/status/1825278817407045846

by Chris Ball

Loveland, Ohio – There are some series in baseball that tell you exactly what a team is made of, and what it they are capable of doing. This weekend’s set with the Kansas City Royals was one of them. With the Reds inching within 2 games of .500 it was yet another in a long line of chances for them to both beat a quality team and finally show that they could string a series of wins together when it mattered most.

But as we have seen all too often this season, they not only failed to win the series, but they also looked absolutely overmatched by a far superior baseball team. The numbers are enough to make even die-hard Reds fans green around the gills. They were outscored 28 to 3, outhit 41 to 18, and they struck out 32 times. The games were not competitive and if you didn’t know any better, you might be forgiven for thinking that the Reds had given up on the season as opposed to a team that was actually still within striking distance of a Wild Card birth.

Elly De La Cruz picked an unfortunate time to go ice cold. He was 1-11 in the series. Spencer Steer was 1-9. Noelvi Marte only played the first two games but was 0-6 with 2 strikeouts.

And the pitching, which had been so promising this season, crumbled right alongside the Reds’ bats. Fernando Cruz once again was rocked in game 1, giving up 4 earned runs in the top of the 9th to ensure the game would be far out of reach. In game 2, we saw more of how Nick Lodolo’s post-injury return has turned into a nightmare. He managed just 2.1 innings and gave up 8 earned runs. In his last 7 starts his ERA is 7.05 and he is giving up hits at a .264 clip. The Reds called on Andrew Abbott to stop the bleeding in game 3 and perhaps salvage a win, but he could only muster 5 innings, giving up 4 runs in the process. Once again the Reds bullpen, this time in the form of Casey Legumina, watched the game go completely out of control as he gave up 6 hits and 4 runs in his 2 innings.

Make no mistake, the Kansas City Royals are the real deal. They are 7th in the major leagues in batting average, 12th in on base percentage, and 2nd in strikeout rate. They put all of those metrics on display in this series and made the Reds pitchers look as though they were throwing beach balls down the heart of the plate. It was unfortunate that Cincinnati, whose bats managed 25 hits and 19 runs against the Cardinals, simply could not match such an offensive output.

This pattern is one that is all too familiar to Reds fans. In early July the team swept the New York Yankees in impressive fashion just to turn around and be swept by the Detroit Tigers. The Reds then won two games in Atlanta only to lose 2 out of 3 to the Tampa Bay Rays. It has been a story of promise and hope, followed by inexplicable losses in embarrassing circumstances.

Another note on Lodolo, with Hunter Greene being put on the Injured List with elbow soreness, he is the starting pitcher that the Reds will look to take the mound and face the opponents’ best and not flinch. The time for him to “figure it out” or “get right” is now. He has shown that he has the talent and ability to be a very good pitcher in this league and the pressure is now on to prove that he can do that when his is the staff’s number one option.

The Reds are now in a very familiar position. 60-64, 4 games under .500 and 6 games out of the last Wild Card birth. They are in 4th place in the National League Central, 12 games back of the Milwaukee Brewers. They go on the road to Toronto for a series against the Blue Jays, who sit at 58-66. This is yet another stretch of winnable games for this team, but if they cannot take at least 2 out of 3 from our friends from the country up north, it may be the end of what little hope remains in Cincinnati.

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Christopher Ball is a longtime Loveland resident and an attorney. He graduated from Loveland High School in 2003 and was a member of the football team before going on to become a coach’s assistant at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He has been following and rooting for the Reds and Bengals since the early 1990s and has been through the many ups and downs that fandom has wrought over the years.

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