The Good, The Bad, and The Cincinnati Reds
Historical Loss
It’ll get better Reds fans, I say this with confidence because it can’t get worse. I am a firm believer that the Sports Gods like keep everyone humble. As a Philadelphia Eagles fan, I can confirm we sold our souls for Super Bowl LII; the woes of the Sixers and Simmons, the Phillies have the longest playoff drought in NL despite a top 3 payroll, and Flyers haven’t been relevant for years. The Sports Gods seem to have shifted their focus to south east Ohio. If you’ve followed my writing from the beginning you may think I am from Cincinnati as they frequently seem to find themselves in stories that draw my attention. If you followed the headlines from the weekend for the MLB you know that I can’t not write about this.
Cincinnati used up all their luck on the Bengals who feel short in LA during this years Super Bowl and now the Reds are getting all the bad sports luck. The Reds started the season 3–22, on pace to break the Cleveland Spiders 1899 mark for worst record in MLB season (said pace for the Reds was a comical 19–143).
The Reds have started to right the ship winning six of nine heading into last Sunday. Hunter Greene took the bump in Pittsburgh and didn’t allow a single hit. Great! Right? Normally a no-hitter is something to hang your hat on even in the worst of seasons — but not Sunday. For just the sixth time in MLB history a team allowed zero hits and lost. How is this possible you might ask? Well Greene loaded the bases on walks in the 8th inning had one out. With the middle infield back and a ground ball up the middle the Reds attempted to turn a double play but the Pirates’ Hayes beat out the throw to first. Hayes drove in the only run of the game on fielder’s choice.
There's simply no analogy to compare how rare and difficult of a loss this is to achieve, as I stare at my keyboard I am a lot of words. Which may be the truest sign that something absurd has happened. All I can say to Cincinnati is: was the AFC championship worth it? I have feeling many Cincinnatians will say ‘yes’. I just hope for their sake that their bad luck runs dry before Joey Burrow takes the field in September.
Staying Woke
After discussing with some friends the history we witnessed he had interesting take that the Reds would’ve been better off if Greene had given up a hit earlier in the game. Sounds crazy, but has some truth behind it. The Reds certainly gave Greene a longer leash with a no-no on the line. A high pitch count and obvious control issues in the 8th would normally be cause to call the pen, but no with history on the line. If he had allowed a hit earlier, Greene most likely is pulled earlier and the Reds would have had a better chance to win. Just food for thought.
