MINNEAPOLIS – The Cincinnati Reds boast an ability to reach deeper into their franchise history than any other team in the majors.
But their early-season tribute to the dead-ball era has extreme by even their standards.
The Reds are off to one of their best three-week starts to a season. But until a pair of three-run rallies in the final two innings of their weekend sweep in Minnesota, that start had little to do with a lineup that is still hitting a league-worst .202 and that needed the aid of five unearned runs to cover the margins of two of the wins in that sweep.
For all the success on the mound, with the gloves and in the standings, is it too early to be concerned about a lineup that came into the year with big expectations with the power injections of free agent slugger Eugenio Suárez and a first full year of rookie Sal Stewart?
“Part of my job is to be concerned about everything,” manager Terry Francona said. “But I trust in our guys. Guys with (backs of) baseball cards, they’re going to get to their level.”
Until then, well, it hasn’t been pretty. And the only reason the season hasn’t been downright ugly for the team overall is that they’ve been pitching well enough to win a lot of low-scoring games, mostly thanks to the best-performing bullpen in the majors (MLB-leading 2.31 ERA through 22 games).
Before their series finale against the Twins, the Reds ranked last in the majors in six categories:
As for that last one, it was 20 points worse than the 29th-ranked team – and went down to .179 after a 2-for-13 Sunday that included TJ Friedl’s three-run double in the ninth and Rece Hinds’ two-run double in the 10th for most of the late-inning runs in that 7-4 series finale.
The overall average (.202), slugging percentage (.326) and OPS (.623) all went down Sunday even with the late surge.
“It’s not been as easy scoring runs as we’d certainly like it to be, but as long as they don’t either panic or feel sorry for themselves, they’ll figure it out,” Francona said.
“I do like that they’re competing,” the manager said. “A lot of times you see teams that aren’t hitting, and they start feeling sorry for yourself, and it’s like, ‘Well, when we start hitting we’ll play better.’ “
That competitiveness was on display the last four innings of the Twins series, pressing the Minnesota bullpen with scoring chances until they broke through.
“The confidence we have in one-run ballgames is incredible,” said TJ Friedl, who was 0-for-15 before delivering hits in two of his final three at-bats Sunday, helping the Reds improve to 3-0 in extra-inning games this year (they’re 10-0 in games decided by one or two runs).
“It’s obviously great having timely hitting and big hits like those situations (late Sunday), but we’ve been doing it all season,” he said. “We’ve been playing clean baseball, that’s the biggest thing. Our pitching has been doing phenomenal. We’re taking care of the ball on defense, which is a big point of emphasis.
“With our lineup, it’s only a matter of time before the bats start rolling.”
Hinds said the way the Twins series ended might be a sign that the time is now.
Until they back it up, all that lack of hitting left them with the second-lowest collective team WAR for non-pitchers in the majors (per baseball-reference.com) despite good team fielding in the early going.
They rank dead last in WAR at four different positions: all three outfield spots and second base.
“It’s early. Obviously, we want to be at our best all the time. But that’s part of the game, part of the ups and downs,” said second baseman Matt McLain, who snapped an 0-for-12 skid with a first-inning single parachuted over the second baseman Sunday after sitting out of the starting lineup Saturday.
It’s not just McLain and Friedl. Third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes takes an 0-for-31 skid into the team’s next series, against the Rays in St. Petersburg. And the newly recalled Rece Hinds was 0-for-28 until a seventh-inning single Saturday; he delivered a game-tying sacrifice fly, a walk and the big double in the 12 innings of the series that followed.
“It’s going to come for this lineup,” McLain said. “We’ve got a good group of players who know how to compete, and we’re going to get locked in soon.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Is Cincinnati Reds lineup on verge of breaking out of MLB-worst start?
Reporting by Gordon Wittenmyer, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
