Wednesday night, like the one before it, did not go well for the Cincinnati Reds. For the second night in a row they left Great American Ball Park with a loss at the hands of the last place Pittsburgh Pirates. Wednesday’s loss saw Cincinnati tie the game up in the bottom of the 9th inning on a Tyler Stephenson home run, but lose in extra innings by a score of 4-3 as they left the bases loaded to end the game.
Unlike Tuesday night, the Chicago Cubs didn’t blow a big lead and lose to the Mets. New York was unable to pull off a comeback victory on Wednesday and their lead over the Reds remains one game heading into play on Thursday. The Los Angeles Dodgers also blew a lead out in Arizona on Tuesday with the Diamondbacks pulling off the come-from-behind win. On Wednesday the Dodgers held a 4-1 lead heading into the bottom of the 8th inning and saw that lead evaporate as Arizona scored three runs to tie things up. The game ultimately headed into extra innings where Los Angeles would score the winning run in the top of the 11th. That kept the Diamondbacks tied with the Reds in the 4th spot of the wild card race – one game behind the Mets.
The Reds have the tiebreaker over the Mets and over the Diamondbacks in any scenario where they are tied with either or both of them for the 3rd wild card. That’s very useful, but you’ve got to be tied for that to matter and right now Cincinnati isn’t.
The Reds will finish up their series against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday afternoon with a 12:40pm ET start. They will then hit the road to take on the Milwaukee Brewers for a regular season ending 3-game road trip. New York will finish up their series in Chicago against the Cubs at 7:40pm ET before they head to Miami to take on the Marlins for their regular season ending 3-game road series. Arizona will host the Dodgers in the final game of their series at 3:40pm ET before heading west to take on the San Diego Padres for the final three games of the regular season.
Fangraphs playoff odds as I type this at 1:15am ET have the Mets at 61.7% to grab the final wild card spot. Arizona is next with a 20.5% chance. Cincinnati is sitting there with a 17.6% chance. The St. Louis Cardinals (78-81) and the Miami Marlins (77-81) are both still alive, but have a 0.0% and 0.1% chance according to Fangraphs.
With four games remaining the Cincinnati Reds need to win one more game than the New York Mets, but also win as many or more games as the Arizona Diamondbacks in order to secure the wild card. If the Mets lose out, the Reds and Diamondbacks only win one game, and both the Cardinals and Marlins win out – I honestly don’t know what that brings if all five wind up at 81-81.
Aww well, another season in the toilet. Hopefully Tired Old Tito will retire for good. His twin brothers Krall and Meador need to be FIRED. The upcoming series in Milwaukee should be quite comical.
God I’m glad the players dont have the same attitude as many of y’all, wish they had more fans with the same type of mentality.
Go Reds, keep fightin’
I don’t believe God has anything to do with some people’s bad attitudes.
Laughter is good for the soul, Brett. I hope it’s good for yours.
The Pirates playing with house money may just sweep. I still don’t know why you let Marte swing 3-1 with bases loaded. They really don’t deserve to make playoffs after stumbling vs. Athletics and Pirates. I would feel more confident if it the Brewers were not up next.
There’s almost no situation I’d take the bat out of a hitter’s hand with a 3-1 count.
+10000000.
Good news! The Reds magic number is now 5.
Bad news the Mets magic number is now 4 and there are only 4 game left.
That one hurt!! Please win today……….
It’s not over with but it kind of feels that way. They lost 2 to the last place Pirates that they should have won. Of course they still have a chance so there is always hope until they are officially eliminated. Let’s see what happens this afternoon.
Marte should have taken two pitches. And MCClain should be benched If Hays can’t play then bring up someone ASAP. Maybe Vlade
We could be back in the lead before we go to bed. Like Geno says, ‘good vibes only’!
I think it’s long past time to see Espinal at 2b. Day game after a night game it makes too much sense. We know he does well when used sparingly……can’t do any worse than MM. Honestly, I thought MM was a more heady player that this, but he consistently wilts under pressure as a hitter as evidenced by his .187 with RISP and a .148 average in high leverage situations (.247 in low leverage).
McLain is a rookie to this playoff pressure, having gone down with a right oblique injury (grade 2 strain) in late August of 2023 and missing all of September in 2023.
So, it has been two years since we’ve seen “the real” Matt McLain we anticipated in an MLB regular season game. Then again, maybe a grade 2 oblique strain on the right side, major shoulder surgery on his left shoulder, and a year away from competition have rendered the current version of McLain at the plate the real McLain??
Espinal should never start if we’re facing a righty starting pitcher.
At least, the Dodgers and Cubs did their job even if the Reds didn’t. Defense is great when you have an offense, but it’s not really all that helpful when you don’t. It just keeps the margin of defeat down. If the Reds win one more game this season that’ll be something. They held all the cards and instead of playing them to win, they let their mouth overload their rear ends. Learn the value of “no comment” and stay focused on the game. Talk to reporters AFTER you win something. In the meantime, leave it to Tito.
Agree on not talking out of turn. I saw a headline that one of the Reds had said “We Deserve This” in reference to controlling their own destiny at the start of this Pirates series, and thought Oh, no, if this is the mindset, there is trouble ahead. This reflects being too focused on where they were versus where they needed to get to.
Defense is great when you rely on pitching, LDS.
If and only if you can score runs.
Over the past 5 weeks (since the Reds were sitting at 67-60) they are 4 games below 0.500 and have scored 3 runs or less in half of those games.
The Mets have been doing everything they can to hand the Reds the final playoff spot. But the Reds offense just refuses to reach out and take it.
Luckily the Gm spent some money on a power bat at 3B.. ?
If the Diamondbacks get in, a lead story will be that they sold at the deadline and their “younger” guys caught fire and got the job done. Too bad the Reds didn’t have anyone who might have fit that description. 😉
They’re actually 5 games under (13-18) since then
This will be a photo-finish wild card race apparently on Sunday. The Reds only have to win 1 more game than Mets and even Dbacks as long as the other teams don’t win out. But the Reds are unpredictable. They got swept by non-contending A’s but won the series vs Cards at Busch stadium , swept a 4-game set vs Cubs only to lose the first two against last-place ugly Pirates so what can they do today in finale vs them and the last series against Brewers can’t be supposed at all.
It’s interesting what would happen if a 5-team tie arises.. I think the same applies…first how they played each other , the intra-division records and so on until they flip the coin
The Reds are split head-to-head with the Giants, and lost the season series to the Marlins and Cardinals, and as has been said here time and again, have the head-to-head over both the Mets and Diamondbacks. The Marlins and the Cardinals split with the Diamondbacks and each other. So, this wipes out any chance of one of the six teams mentioned here having a head-to-head over all the others.
So, I think we cannot use the words here to say what a five-way tie would be in called in popular vernacular. 😉
“This will be a photo-finish wild card race apparently on Sunday.”
And due to a poor decision (IMO) by Tito, Greene will not be available to pitch in what could be the most important game of the year.
When you havent won as much a a playoff series in 30 years, its hard to criticize anyone who has let their frustration boil over. The Mets were willing to give the last WC spot to the Reds and they wouldn’t take it.
This roster was put together with mostly question marks offensively. They were expecting a young player who missed the entire season last year to come in and pick right up where he left off 2 years ago. Im sure his confidence has been affected and who knows how it affects his development long term. Developing position players is not a strong suit for the Cincinnati Reds, this season is a strong example. The young core took a step back this year with the exception of Marte. Maybe because their evaluations were flawed to start with?
We desperately need someone who knows how to build a roster or next year will be more of the same. Its been 8 years now, please move on.
Someone please tell McLain to stop trying to pull pitches on the outer half! He eventually starts trying to hit to the right side for 3 to 4 game stretches and then after some success goes right back to trying to pull the outside pitch with his little short arms! Please, please, stop it!
I’ve tried hundreds of times…He doesn’t seem to listen.
Megaphone.
The Reds need to pull themselves together and win. The rest will take care of itself.
The Reds need to pull themselves together and win. The rest will take care of itself. Let’s keep our head up!
Yes, this is the only proactive thing they can do. This finish is shaping up remarkably like 2023 with the Reds, Marlins, and Diamondbacks in their same roles and the Mets in the role of the 2023 Cubs.
Reds score 2 runs in regulation. That means Cincy has been held to 2 or less (non-ghost man) runs 5 times in the last 8 games!!!
As has been the case so many times this year, the pitching was good enough, but the hitting was not. If you look at our batting lineup compared with the other contenders, it just doesn’t measure up. Not nearly enough talent on the offensive side. That MUST be addressed this winter.
This is what happens when a team depends on an injured everyday player who ebbs and flows sharply (A.Hays and Steer), plus an injured specialty player (Andujar), and a guy who has not been right all year (McLain).
IMO it has been addressed or known for a long, long time now we need an everyday power bat. What needs addressing is the ownership can’t or won’t spend the kind of money it is going to take to get a Kyle Schwarber type player. Heck Reds don’t even seem to have the money to lock up and extend player or two. I don’t see much changing next year. Ownership seems to be waiting, much like me for what the new CBA might hold. Far as I can tell it’s all we have to hang our hats on right now.
Today would be a good time for Lodolo to silence the doubters after some questionable starts the last few weeks. Reynolds and Horowitz are the only two that can do damage and they’re both left handed hitters, so you have to think advantage Lodolo if he keeps the ball in the yard.
Today is a must win game, please tell me why Stephenson who had 4 hits last night is not playing. I am losing all faith in Francona.
The Pirates are using the same pitchers today? If they were, Stephenson’s great day would have great relevance Trevino actually has a higher BA this season than does Stephenson, and more doubles,, Fewer homers. I wonder if Lodolo prefers pitching to Trevino?
I don’t think stats alone explain it cause Stephenson’s OPS is 110 points higher and his OPS+ is 99 vs 70.Lots of other reasons that we don’t know about and could be Lodolo just prefers pitching to Trevino as you stated.I tend to believe its just the normal day game after a night game and a long one at that where the back up plays.Tyler will be available to hit and hope he doesn’t have to and the Reds roll today.GO REDS
Day game after night game? Catching is hard; bodies need time to recover.
There are four games left in the season. Stephenson has started 18 games at catcher since August 1st and only 63 all year.
If this were August 1st, sure, let him rest. It’s not August 1st.
Yeah, it’s much more likely related to the fact that Stephenson is also playing with a broken thumb.
If he can’t hit the next day then he shouldn’t be active. This isn’t 1995 – the DH exists in the league. Andujar’s not exactly ripping the cover off of the ball this month.
But also – Francona did say after I published this that Stephenson isn’t playing because, and I’m paraphrasing a bit here “catchers don’t play day games after night games” so it’s not related to the thumb unless he’s just making something up to not talk about the thumb. Which is problematic in a different way.
Francona also mentioned that last night’s game going into extra innings was an additional factor.
I wanna believe the thumb explanation. The day game after a night game … anyone see catchers regularly sit during the same scenario in the playoffs? This is essentially a playoff scenario. But oh well, it isn’t like this offense needs help.
If there ever was a time to let him catch after a night game today would be the day. He’s by far the hottest hitter we have and we have a very hard time scoring runs to begin with.
On a lesser but still important note Stewart is not gong to help much if he isn’t allowed to get in a groove by playing regularly. Hayes and his hitting lately is dragging this team down just like was feared when Krall traded for him. The difference in defense is not enough to justify playing him over Stewart at least on this team as it cannot carry a guy like Hayes.
“This isn’t 1995 – the DH exists in the league. Andujar’s not exactly ripping the cover off of the ball this month.”
…and then there’s that. By the way even Stephenson can run faster that Andujar right now.
Matt McLain is not in the starting line up. I wonder if Francona heard to boo birds the last two nights and decided to give him a day off.