An off-day on Thursday before Friday fireworks in Cincinnati.
The Kansas City Royals made back to back appearances in the World Series last decade, falling to the even-year San Francisco Giants in 2014 before hanging the banner themselves a year later. They limped to a meager 81-81 record in 2016, and haven’t seen a winning record since.
That’s until this year, however, as the emergence of young superstar shortstop Bobby Witt, Jr. paired with a shrewdly revamped pitching staff has them 66-55 and the current owners of an American League Wild Card spot.
The Royals and the Cincinnati Reds have some pretty similar parallels, all told.
The Reds, fresh off a 3-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals that saw them blast 10 dingers and vault all the way into 2nd place in the National League Central, are a club that’s seen endless years of frustration after the even-year San Francisco Giants shot down their best hopes of a title last decade. They’re built around their own superstar shortstop and a revamped, refurbished set of starting pitching, and their pythagorean record – based on ther +55 run differential – actually suggests they should be 66-55 this year, too.
Cincinnati has the day off on Thursday, perhaps an ill-timed day of rest given how hot their bats have been lately. Jonathan India (0 for 23 skid before a pair of homers yesterday) and TJ Friedl (pair of dingers yesterday) look like they found their strokes, joining Elly De La Cruz, Spencer Steer (pair of homers on Tuesday), and Tyler Stephenson (homers seemingly every day these days) as the core of a lineup that’s looking much more like the one we saw during their early surge in 2023 than what stumbled around for much of 2024.
The end result? We’ve got a Reds/Royals series this weekend in Great American Ball Park that’s as pivotal as either franchise has seen this time of year in years, and there’s ample on the line for both. Kansas City holds a meager 2 game lead over the Boston Red Sox in the tight race for AL Wild Card positioning, while the Reds are stuck in a glut with both St. Louis and those damn even-year Giants 4.5 games back of the final National League Wild Card spot.
If you’re a glass-half-full kind of person, there are 41 games remaining for this young Reds club to get hot and seize a playoff spot. If you’re a glass-half-empty individual, there are only 41 games left for this young Reds club to get hot, and they’ve still got four clubs to usurp to claim even the final playoff position.
Either way, it’s an upstart face-off on the docket come Friday, with the Reds playing their best ball of the year.