Can The Rally Reds Rally Into The Playoffs
Photo from Dylan Buell, Getty Images
Cincinnati, Oh (PSF) - The Cincinnati Reds 2023 season has been quite interesting to say the least. On May 14th, Cincinnati sat at 18-22, and fourth in the NL Central, before the first of the Reds rookie phenoms made his debut on May 15th. Matt McLain made an immediate impact on this team and showed the world he belonged on this stage.
Rookies Elly De La Cruz, Christian Encarnacion Strand, Noelvi Marte and many others would follow suit. Putting the team at 73-69, and a half game out of the last playoff spot.
This team has already exceeded expectations and brings the competitive hope back to an organization that seemed lost. Cincinnati has seen 16 rookies make their Major League debuts this year, and still have hope in more prospects to make their mark on the league next year.
Besides the phenomenal rookie leaders, Cincinnati fans have taken pride in the team’s newest nickname, “The Rally Reds”. The Reds have 44 comeback wins this year, the most in the MLB. The most in franchise history since 2012, which is coincidentally the last time the Reds had this much talent. (Also had 44 comeback wins in 2012).
This team can never be counted out, and always has a way of making every game interesting. Tuesday night’s game saw Nick Martini send a three-run bomb into the stands to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth inning. Encarnacion Strand then hit a game winning single, driving in De La Cruz from second base.
Reds fans have been left with many great memories from The Rally Reds this season. From Will Benson’s walk off moonshot homerun against the Dodgers, all the way to De La Cruz stealing every single base in Milwaukee.
Cincinnati has a very talented team that could be returning to full strength very soon. Jonathan India is expected to be back sometime next week, while Hunter Greene is slated to be back this weekend if everything goes right with his return from the Covid-19 list. Joey Votto, and Matt Mclain aim to be back by the end of the season, as this team looks to secure a playoff spot.
Joey Votto celebrating a home run in the Viking outfit. Photo from Aaron Doster, AP
With just under a month to play, Cincinnati finds themselves in a four-team race with the Miami Marlins, the Arizona Diamondbacks, and the San Francisco Giants for the last wild card spot. The Reds would hold the tiebreaker over Arizona if it were to come down to it. However, the Giants and Marlins currently hold the tiebreaker over Cincinnati due to their interdivisional record.
Luckily for the Reds, they have the easiest strength of schedule to wrap up the year, with their average opponent winning percentage being .464, ranking 25th among all teams. Meanwhile, the Marlins have the fifth hardest remaining schedule, while the Diamondbacks and Giants are ranked at 16, and 23 respectively.
Remaining Strength of schedules according to tankathon.com
With the additions of Harrison Bader, and Hunter Renfroe from the waiver wire, this team sits in a very unique position.
It’s safe to say that nobody in Cincinnati saw this team being in this situation at the beginning of the year. This teams only goal was to get their rookie talent to the big leagues and be ready to compete next season. The additions of Bader, and Renfroe show that this team is ready to go for it all this season. The team now finds themselves in a situation where they could make the playoffs and seriously compete next year.
This Cincinnati team is not one to overlook by any means. This is a team that looked like the best team in all of baseball during the month of June. If they can slide their way into the post-season with a fully healthy team, watch out.