By: Nick McGIll
After taking three games out of four against the Cardinals last week and sweeping the Dodgers this weekend, the Reds are showing that they mean business.
The end of the season is rapidly approaching and the Reds are proving that they are currently one of the hottest teams in baseball over the last 10 games.
As of Sunday the Reds have won seven of their last 10 games compared to the Cardinals’ four and the Pirates’ five and have caught up to the the Pirates in the standings, now a mere 1.5 games behind the NL Central leading Cardinals.
Everything seems to be going as planned for the Reds, but will they be able to maintain their dominance down the stretch?
Over the course of the season, Dusty Baker’s Reds have proven to be a streaky team with their longest winning and losing streaks of the season being six games each.
With the Reds currently on a tear, fans may be worried that the tables will turn and the Reds will begin to struggle.
Baker has been putting a lot of trust in his young players and seems confident that the Reds will continue their winning ways one game at a time.
When Major League Baseball rosters expanded on Sept. 1, the Reds brought up a handful of young pitchers from their farm system, including Neftali Soto, Nick Christiani, Zach Duke and the electric Billy Hamilton.
Immediately after being called up, Baker put in rookie Zach Duke to make his Reds debut and the pitcher dominated Cardinals hitters.
Fans around the country were riveted when Hamilton made his MLB debut as a pinch runner and stole his very first base against Gold Glove catcher Yadier Molina of the Cardinals.
By putting these players right into the mix, Baker shows the belief that he has in each player on the roster.
Not only are the newcomers making an impact, the hitters toward the bottom of the lineup are contributing offensively more now than they have all season.
It seems that the Reds have finally reached the point in the season where every part of their game is firing on all cylinders and everyone is executing his job.
So don’t worry Reds fans, it seems clear that winning ways are still ahead of us.