Reds score lone run via bunt, lose, get eliminated from postseason contention
That’s officially that.
The Cincinnati Reds lost to the Atlanta Braves to the tune of 7-1 on Wednesday evening in Great American Ball Park. Starter Jakob Junis was once again awesome for the ol’ Redlegs, as he fired 6.0 IP of 2 H, ER ball, but all that does at this juncture is make it more and more likely that he’ll want to opt-out of the mutual option on his contract at season’s end and become a free agent.
The future. That’s once again what we’re focusing on here, since tonight’s loss officially eliminated the Reds from postseason contention.
That the lone run the Reds scored on the night came after Elly De La Cruz tripled and later scored on a squeeze play that leveraged his speed only serves to highlight the plight of this roster at the moment. They’re fast, that’s for sure, but there just aren’t enough polished bats available on a day to day basis to make this club look at all close to being a contender.
That throws quite the wrench in offseason planning when the starting rotation - once the relatively cheap, in-house bedrock of the roster that would let the front office divert their offseason spending elsewhere - lost yet another arm to serious injury earlier in the day.
They’re 74-79, and what’s left to play for remains completely up in the air for them at this juncture. If that seems like the story of the last decade, two decades, three decades...
...well, that’s precisely the story of those decades.
We here at Red Reporter will turn our focus to the offseason priorities in due time, but the next week and half is once again going to be dedicated to pause and reflection on a season that the front office promised would be promising only for it to crash, burn, roll off a cliff, and start a 40,000 acre wildfire shortly thereafter.
Frankly, I’d like to extend a personal thank you to all who’ve stuck around here for the past few years as the Reds embarked upon their 27th rebuild in the last 9 seasons in the first place. Between the pandemic, the lockout, the mothership slashing our budget to the point of absurdity, the forced exodus of the fleet of excellent writers who formerly called this corner of the internet home as a result, the obnoxious new comment system, the abandoning of comments on older articles, etc., it’s been a bit of a trying time here at this corner of the internet. That so many of you have still decided to check back in on the regular has been one of the brightest aspects of Reds Internet™, I assure you.
Onwards and upwards. Or, at least, onwards.