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The Cincinnati Reds have just played a big 4-game series at home against their home rivals St. Louis Cardinals, giving them an incredible chance to climb the rankings in front of their fans.
They did not do it.
This, of course, happened exactly one week after the Reds had a big round of four home games against the Chicago Cubs, their first distinct chance to climb the rankings in front of their fans.
They did not do it either.
The first August which actually counted Recent memory has, to date, been a burning failure for the Reds, in all reality. They split these two series, with the Atlanta Braves and countered their emphatic 2-game Los Angeles Angels sweep with an epic strike from the Max Scherzer-Washington Nationals, whose 3-game sweep of the Reds ended all the odds that the latter had to make noise in 2019.
The Reds have now played seven games under the .500 mark, 7.5 in the middle of the NL and 7.5 in the Wild Card's second place, behind an arsenal of other contenders. It's actually a game more below the .500 mark than they were when it was August of relevance started, and we officially reached the point of the season when the Reds should win 39 consecutive wins to end the season with the same record as in 2012.
I'm pretty sure that will not happen. Yet, they will play these games.
The next step is a series of games that will lack any relevance to the challenge that the Reds have set to start this month, with none of the teams on the calendar being anywhere this season. You could easily put yourself in their shoes and say the same thing about the Reds, I admit it too. First, the Reds will welcome the San Diego Padres to GABP starting tonight and will do so as rookie star Padres, Fernando Tatis, Jr. is now lost for the season. The Padres may well be about to stop Chris Paddack, their budding star star, too. Like the Reds, the mid – paced Padres have good plays next to a record of less than .500, so there may be victories to be won.
Then, the Reds will face the Miami Marlins and Pittsburgh Pirates, owners of the two worst records in the National League. The Reds managed to sweep the Marlins in April, beating the unfortunate 21-1 in a 3-game set at GABP to help start erasing the memories of the terrible start to the season from 1-8, but that's a little off balance by the dull 5-8 record, they have concocted their pass against the Pirates this season, a story that often goes under the curtain while focusing on the two major fights between clubs this year.
So, yes, it's been 11 straight games against poor or bad competition, and the idea that the 2019 Reds will reach the .500 level will be very good on this particular stretch.
Is this a goal that deserves to be pursued? Questionable.
Is this an achievable goal? Questionable, too.
However, the fact is that this seems to be a real and real goal of these Reds, be it silly, careless or otherwise.
This Reds team is not worried about their tentative position for 2020. The steps they have taken to bring Trevor Bauer, Kevin Gausman and Freddy Galvis show that while showing their commitment to spend to win in 2019, instead of amazing ways we've seen them in recent seasons. The commitment to play every day with Jose Iglesias also shows this winner-now mentality, as his age and contract status would otherwise indicate that it is not a play that will be part of the Reds' next winning team.
Unlike previous years, most of the who we're going to be watching Don Reds' uniforms the rest of the season, that's what we're likely to see next year. Although the victory is not yet sufficiently realized in 2019, you have the impression that the Reds have the impression to have tinkered most of a list of 25 can win in the coming seasons, and that there are not many radical changes to be made between now and the start of the 2020 season. In this respect, what we will watch for the next 39 games is neither a player retreaded to other organizations at the end of the season that passes through the movements of a bad team, nor a real surveillance for recruits with September orders trying to make a big splash in their cups of coffee. These recruits have been here for some time now, and there are none left to be called this year.
What we are going to see is that the 2020s are putting into practice for next year. A trial phase where games do not really matter, but the experience, in theory, of learning to win them will be decisive. It is certainly a strange thing to look for, but it seems to be the case of M.O. under which the front office and the list work for the moment.
I do not know if losing trying to win is more or less frustrating than losing on purpose, but the first was certainly what we see with the 2019 Reds for a change. At least that's what the first 123 games were. Now, it looks like the eyes are on 2020 when the 2019 Reds are still playing, but these last 39 matches seem somehow related to what we'll be watching all next season, some sort of launch point, building block or extended pre-season. . Let's hope that this season will be crowned with appropriate growth and that it will lead to a promising year in 2020. This seems to be what the Reds themselves will be watching.
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