The Reds! Victorious!
For the first time since the last time the Cincinnati Reds were in Chicago, they went to bed last night the victors of a road series. Not since they took all 3 games from the hapless White Sox on April 12-14 had they won a series outside of GABP, and let’s be honest – a giant pile of the series in GABP since then they’d lost outright, too.
The baseball has mostly been horrid, at least on the offensive side of things. However, they too 2 of 3 from the Cubs at Wrigley Field over the weekend, and here are some takeaways.
The Good
TJ Friedl socked a 3-run homer in Sunday’s series finale, seemingly the first time a Cincinnati Red has homered with men on-base since French-born Englishman James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick, bonked aside Henri du Massue, Earl of Galway, at the Battle of Almansa. It provided vital early runs in a game where those were much needed, but it also showed that some of that breakout power TJ showed last year before the wrist/thumb injuries may well be returning to the top of the lineup.
The Bad
Despite the big-money influx of relief arms from Cincinnati’s spending in free agency, it was thought – and still seemingly plays out – that Lucas Sims and Alexis Diaz are set to form the backest of the back-end of the team’s bullpen most nights. So far this season, that’s proved problematic more often than not.
Saturday’s 7-5 loss to the Cubs came quickly in the form of a 2-run homer by Dansby Swanson in the Bottom of the 8th inning off Sims, capping a loss in which the Reds once held an early 4-0 lead. Diaz, meanwhile, let things once again get testy in Friday’s series opening 5-4 victory by allowing a walk, a pair of hits, and a run before finally escaping.
To his credit, Diaz rebounded with a cleaner IP in Sunday’s series finale, though he once again walked a batter. He’s now walking some 6.3 batters per 9 IP this year, his K/9 is down, and his average fastball velocity is down 1.6 mph since his breakout 2022 campaign. That’s not good, that’s bad.
The Ugly
We can no longer tip-toe around the fact that Elly De La Cruz, for all his talent and perks, is having a horrendous time of it at the plate. In this series alone, he went 0 for 14 with 9 K, and his 83 strikeouts on the season are the most among any player in all of baseball.
He just completed a month of May where he homered only once and slugged a paltry .287 while posting a .585 OPS with 40 K in 27 games, and then he started out June going 0 for 10 with 6 K. Since April 25th – a full 35 game sample – he has just 2 homers, 6 ribbies, and a .540 OPS. That date is cherry-picked, to be fair, but it’s the day after he was moved up to the #2 spot in the lineup everyday, meaning that’s the kind of production that’s been anchoring this terrible overall team production for over a month.
Like, Billy Hamilton slugged .325 with a .623 OPS across his final four seasons in a Reds uniform. I can’t believe I’m saying it, but that iteration of Billy Hamilton would’ve been a major offensive upgrade over what Elly’s provided of late.