Surge puts Reds in contention

All the Cincinnati Reds needed was one extended winning streak to turn a disappointing season into a possible playoff berth.

Cincinnati had high hopes after spending big in the offseason, but the Reds showed little sign of improvement until they ran off six straight victories recently. Now they’re at .500 and in a three-way tie with Milwaukee and San Francisco for the final postseason spot in the National League.

Cincinnati hosts a three-game series with the Brewers that started Monday night.

It’s the pitching staff that has led the resurgence for the Reds. They held Pittsburgh to six runs in a four-game sweep, and then they took two of three from the powerful Chicago White Sox. Trevor Bauer (4-4, 1.80 ERA) and Luis Castillo (3-5, 3.03) give Cincinnati a formidable starting pitching tandem, and Nick Castellanos, Eugenio Suarez, Jesse Winker and Joey Votto all have reached doubledigit home runs.

Elsewhere in the NL Central, Milwaukee and St. Louis are closing strong, as well. Those two teams have each won four in a row — the Cardinals are in second place in the division, a game ahead of the Reds and Brewers.

Milwaukee, which made a late charge last season to earn a wild card, beat Kansas City 5-3 on Sunday, with Daniel Vogelbach hitting two homers and driving in all five runs.

Bieber watch

Cleveland’s Shane Bieber heads a Cleveland rotation that has been terrific this year. He has a chance to win the pitching triple crown this season by leading the American League in wins, ERA and strikeouts. In fact, he has a chance to go a step further and lead the majors in all three of those categories.

Bieber leads the majors with eight wins, a 1.74 ERA and 112 strikeouts.

Johan Santana is the last pitcher to win the major league triple crown, leading baseball with 19 wins, a 2.77 ERA and 245 strikeouts in 2006 with the Twins.

Meanwhile, Tribe starter Zach Plesac made some history of his own Friday night at Detroit when he became the first pitcher in baseball this year to throw an immaculate inning — striking out the side on nine pitches.

Caught up

Although this season has been marked by numerous postponements, the standings no longer look terribly out of whack. Every team except St. Louis has played between 52 and 55 games. Even Miami, which was shut down for a while earlier because of problems with the coronavirus, is now 28-25 and in second place in the NL East.

The Cardinals are still a bit behind, having played only 50 games. They have a doubleheader with Milwaukee scheduled Friday and might also have to play a makeup doubleheader against Detroit, depending on the state of the postseason picture.