After reaching their pinnacle of 12 games over 500 back on Jun 7, The Reds have descended in an up and down manner, but clearly downward, toward the Pirates in the cellar, and are in the process of losing 2 of 3 to the Pirates at home (and if it weren’t for a heroic grandslam Friday night by Pena, they would have been swept.)
After June 7th, the Reds lost 7 in a row, took 3 straight from Texas (bouncing back, right? ) then lost 3 of the next 4, then won 3 in a row again, before dropping the last two games 1-0 (wasting a rare good pitching perfomance by the bullpen) and now are getting rocked 13-3, the seond straight bad outing for Paul Wilson, who was 7-0 with at least three other wins blown by the bullpen…..is now 7-2. Phil Norton and Mike Matthews, the Reds lefties in the bullpen (now they have Gabe white, who is a legitimate pitcher), need to be let go. They have been pounded time in and time out, and Norton has wildness to go with his inability to make key stops for an already worn out Reds bullpen. When you can’t take at least 2 of 3 from the cellar teams AT HOME, where they had played well all year, it looks like a downward trend. And add to that Sean Casey leaving the game with a tight hamstring. Those are always scary, especially when you consider the Red’s MVP this getting slowed down. Not looking good at all.