The Cincinnati Reds’ five-game winning streak concluded with a 6-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday at Tropicana Field, but the team is headed back to Great American Ball Park for six games while leading the National League Central. Their 16 wins were tied for the most in baseball as the team boarded its plane to return to Cincinnati.
For the first time in more than two years, a dominant start by right-hander Nick Martinez hurt the Reds. One of manager Terry Francona’s all-time favorite players, Martinez limited the Reds to one run in eight innings to beat his former team. Martinez’s performance was the lone blemish on the team’s six-game road trip.
Here are five takeaways — one for each road win — from the Reds’ road trip to Minnesota and Tampa Bay.
Signs of offensive life
For a day, at least, the Reds had a positive run differential — plus-3 before falling to minus-2 with the 6-1 loss. It’s still early, and although that’s a time-honored cliche, it’s true especially for run differential. Last year, the Reds went from a plus-10 run differential after 21 games to a plus-32 after 22 games. That said, scoring as many runs as you allow is usually good, but it’s not particularly telling after 25 games.
One of the biggest differences about the Reds on this road trip has been who joins Jim Day at the post-win interview on the field on TV. Instead of a pitcher or one of the team’s middle-of-the-order bats — Elly De La Cruz, Sal Stewart or Eugenio Suárez — TJ Friedl, Rece Hinds and Dane Myers have done the interviews on the field, which means they’ve been contributing and coming through in big situations.
When the Reds hit the road last week, their 3-4-5 hitters had a combined .911 OPS while everyone else had a .487 OPS, with 16 of the team’s 21 home runs coming from the middle of the order. Over the last six games, the 3-4-5 hitters have a .709 OPS. Everyone else is at .649.
Those numbers will need to come up, but the fact that the gap narrowed from a chasm is a good sign, as long as both don’t crater.
Road warriors
The Reds not only won five of six on this road trip — they’re also 10-3 on the road. No other team had more than eight road wins before games began on Wednesday.
Are the Reds a better road team?
So far this season, the offense has been about the same regardless of location — .643 OPS in 13 road games and .641 in 12 home games. Unsurprisingly, the Reds have more homers at home (15) than on the road (12).
The pitching staff, equally unsurprisingly, has fared better away from homer-happy Great American Ball Park. Reds pitchers are 6-6 with a 4.17 ERA and 14 homers allowed at home, and they’re 10-3 with a 3.03 ERA and five home runs given up on the road. The starters have a 3.78 ERA on the road and relievers a 1.91 ERA. At home, starters have a 4.99 ERA and relievers a 3.14 ERA.
Best of the best
Forget the mighty American League East or the National League West, the balance of power in Major League Baseball heading into the final weekend of April is the mighty NL Central.
Entering Wednesday’s games, the Reds led the NL Central — a position they still hold despite Wednesday’s loss — but were just 2 1/2 games ahead of the last-place Pittsburgh Pirates. No other division in baseball had more than three teams with winning records starting Wednesday. The AL Central and NL West started the day with three teams above .500.
The Reds have played just three of their 25 games this season inside the division, losing two of three to the Pirates earlier this month. In a week, the Reds will hit the road again, but this time it’ll be to Pittsburgh and Chicago to face a pair of divisional opponents. May features 10 games against divisional opponents, with the St. Louis Cardinals coming to town May 22-24. The Reds don’t face the Milwaukee Brewers at all until June 22.
A year ago, the Reds were .500 against divisional opponents, going 8-5 against the Cubs, 5-8 against the Brewers, 7-6 against the Pirates and 6-7 against the Cardinals. Creating separation with a winning record against divisional opponents is the best way to win a division title and not have to wait out the last day of the season, hoping someone else takes care of business.
Reinforcements on the way
Left-handed starter Nick Lodolo is scheduled to make a rehab start Sunday in Dayton, and catcher Jose Trevino is expected to play for the Dragons on Friday. Left-handed reliever Caleb Ferguson could go on a rehab assignment later in the week.
Hunter Greene isn’t expected back until July, but if the team enters the All-Star break still playing well, the addition of Greene could be a huge boost.
This team is fun
The Reds are 6-0 in one-run games and 3-0 in extra-inning games. Last year, they were 22-22 in one-run games and 3-12 in extras. Yes, watching a winner is fun, but you also have some entertaining baseball to boot.
Each of the last five wins had something worth remembering:
• Stewart stealing second to get in scoring position for Suárez in the first game of the series before Suárez drove him in from second and De La Cruz from third for the team’s only two runs in a 2-1 win.
• Hinds hadn’t had a hit since being called up until the seventh inning of Saturday’s 5-4 win in Minnesota. He singled and scored in that inning, then had a sacrifice fly to tie the game in the eighth, leading the team to victory. That sacrifice fly also featured the heads-up base running of Matt McLain, who tried to tag from first on the fly to center, drawing the throw and allowing Suárez to score from third with the tying run.
• The Reds entered the ninth inning of the series finale against the Twins trailing 3-1 going into the ninth. The Reds scored three in the top of the ninth before Emilio Pagán gave up a run in the bottom of the ninth. De La Cruz’s speed led to Twins mistakes and Reds runs in both innings, including De La Cruz scoring from second base on a grounder to third featuring a pair of errors.
• In Monday’s series opener at Tampa Bay, Stewart hit his eighth home run of the season and had a steal of third that led to another run.
• On Tuesday, the Reds had their biggest offensive output of the season, beating the Rays 12-6. Myers scored with a “Matrix”-like move to avoid the tag at home plate, and De La Cruz hit his first right-handed home run off a right-handed pitcher when he homered off Rays infielder Ben Williamson in the ninth inning, turning Williamson’s 48.5-mph pitch around and launching it 108.5 mph off the bat.
Baseball is supposed to be fun, and this Reds team has certainly been that through this first month of the season.
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