Reds Still in Last Despite Streak-Ending Victory

At least they aren’t as historically bad as the 1931 team.

USA Today

Last year, the Reds went 9-7 in their first sixteen regular season games.

So far this year the Reds have played sixteen games but only managed three wins. The first win: the 2016 World Series Champion, Chicago Cubs. The Reds didn’t allow a single run and gave up only 2 hits. The second win: the Pittsburgh Pirates in a 7-4 showdown. And then the third was by far the Reds most impressive outing this year.

Cincinnati Reds vs. Milwaukee Brewers

First, lets talk about pitching. For Mondays game against the Milwaukee Brewers, the Reds started Luis Castillo to face off against Brent Suter. I was completely surprised with Castillo’s performance. He threw 6.2 innings, giving up four Earned Runs on five hits.

Looking at the stats alone, this is not a quality start at all.. but through five innings Castillo was throwing a shutout. Castillo kept with the heat while throwing off the Brewers batters with his off-speed pitches. Castillo was later taken out of the game after giving up a couple runs in the sixth. Cody Reed took over but couldn’t manage to record an out to end the inning before giving up a hit to score two more runs, charged to Luis Castillo. The shaky and unpredictable Reds bullpen finishes the game giving up a pair of hits, striking out three.

The Reds offense was much more impressive. They actually managed to score ten runs on fourteen hits. BOOM! Talk about finding your swing.

Billy Hamilton went 2-4, one walk and three RBI’s. Five individual Reds players recorded an RBI for themselves, and even the struggling Jose Peraza had a couple. Joey Votto recorded his first extra base hit of the season, as he went 2-5 with an RBI.

The Reds ended the game with a team batting average of .355 and an on-base percentage of .419. This is surprising when looking at a team that was 2-13 before Monday, that’s been slow to the plate and rocked when pitching.

Don’t Give Up On The Reds

We’re only sixteen games into the season, which means NOTHING is set in stone.

But I’ve watched every game. We certainly have room for improvement.

The Reds are eight games back from first place Pittsburgh. Let’s get real, we all know the Pittsburgh Pirates aren’t going to win our division.

The Brewers still don’t have a team to compete for first either, so the Reds still have a chance at winning the NL Central if they can produce on offense. Then our pitching just needs to be average.

Don’t give up on the Reds this early in the season because they might surprise you in the long run.

Or at least, we can hope.

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