‘We’re not down on ourselves’: Struggling Reds still in hunt
It's been three weeks – 22 days – since the Cincinnati Reds won a series, dropping six in a row. That's a lifetime in a playoff race. They've lost 12 of their past 18 games, but entering Monday's games they remained tied with the San Diego Padres for the second spot in the wild-card race.
“We're not down on ourselves at all,” said second baseman Jonathan India. “We're going to come through, I know we are. I know we're going to make that playoff spot. At the end of this, we're going to laugh at these losses. So, we'll be fine.”
The Reds have 18 games remaining in the regular season, and nine are against the last-place Pittsburgh Pirates. They'll need to win most of them with the Cardinals only one game behind them in the standings.
It should be a major scheduling advantage compared to the Padres (10 games left vs. San Francisco Giants) and Cardinals (seven games left vs. Milwaukee Brewers), but the Reds haven't won back-to-back games in more than two weeks.
“If you play well the rest of the way, you're going to be the team,” Reds manager David Bell said, “and you're going to take that momentum into the postseason. That's really where our focus is.”
The Reds stack their lineup with righties against left-handed pitchers, but they aren't receiving consistent production outside the top of the lineup.
“Am I surprised?” India said. “Yeah, because we're a dangerous offense. We didn't have all of our guys, some guys have gotten hurt and we've had some switches in the order. It's getting late in the year and we're all battling. That's what it is. We'll be fine. I know we will.”