Eye on the Enemy: Scouting the Cincinnati Reds as they travel to Wrigley Field
Record
18-23, 5.5 GB of Cubs in NL Central
Pitching matchups
Tuesday: Tyler Mahle (1-1, 3.90 ERA) vs. Alec Mills (3-3, 5.50 ERA)
Wednesday: Trevor Bauer (3-3, 2.05 ERA) vs. Yu Darvish (7-1, 1.44 ERA)
Thursday: Sonny Gray (5-2, 3.19 ERA) vs. Adbert Alzolay (0-1, 2.08 ERA)
Outlook
This season has been underwhelming for the Reds thus far. A team that made big signings in the offseason and was expected to contend in the NL Central race has struggled, sitting 5.5 games behind the Cubs and 2.5 games out of the final Wild Card spot. A big series against the Cubs could help them get back on track and they’ll turn to their top-of-the-line rotation. Bauer and Gray have been terrific for the Reds. Mahle, who has thrown quality starts in his last two outings, takes the bump in the opener.
The Reds have shown no problem hitting the ball out of the park, ranking 4th in the NL in home runs, with Eugenio Suárez (12), Nicholas Castellanos (12) and Jesse Winker (10) all in double digits. They’ve struggled to string together offense, though, as they rank last in the NL in batting average (.211) and rank 11th in both on-base percentage (.312) and OPS (.721).