CINCINNATI — Considering the Reds historic struggles on the West Coast, winning a series at the San Francisco Giants is a good thing. Unfortuantely, recency bias has Reds fans feeling like an opportunity was missed to sweep the Giants and really have a surge of momentum coming back to Cincinnati.
Indeed it is a crushing defeat. Again, winning the series is great. But it should have ended in a sweep. The Reds knocked around Giants right-hander, and future Hall of Famer, Justin Verlander, for six runs, and they couldn’t hold a 6-1 lead. The Giants scored seven unanswered runs to win 8-6, meaning the Reds bullpen gave up four runs.
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A win Wednesday would have been more than just a sweep. It would have erased the bad taste of letting Opening Day slip away and, eventually, losing two out of three to the Giants on Opening Day Weekend. It would have guaranteed a winning record against the Giants for the season. Just 13 games into the season, the Reds would have been 4-2 against the Giants.
Again, a series win at San Francisco is good. But it only guarantees the Reds a 3-3 record against the Giants this season. It’s .500. Average. Nothing more.
That’s the big-picture issue here for the Reds. Every time they do something good, like win a series on the West Coast, they always could have done something more. That’s what the really good teams do. They don’t just do good things. They build off them to achieve better like finishing off a sweep. The Reds do something good but then finish in just an average state, like their season series record against the Giants.
The Reds could have come back to Cincinnati with a sweep of a Giants team that was 9-1 coming into the series. They would have had a winning road trip at 4-3, which would have been really impressive given all the adversity they faced in Milwaukee.
A win on Wednesday would have put the Reds at 6-7, meaning they could have gotten back to .500 against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday. The Pirates are 5-8, like the Reds. That’s who the Reds play this weekend.
It’s fair to say it’s only 13 games, and the Reds were 5-8 through 13 games in 2012 when they last won the NL Central. But the Reds can’t keep missing opportunities like Wednesday in San Francisco. When good things happen, the Reds can’t settle for just those good things. They have to build on them, and that’s how they’ll put themselves in position to be in position throughout the season. That will result in them being on the inside track to the postseason come September.
That. That. Is a crusher.#Reds
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Alex Frank brings his passion for Reds Baseball and sports media to Reds On SI. With a commitment to original, detailed and accurate reporting and inside, Alex keeps Reds fans informed with the latest breaking news and other information fans need to know about their favorite team. Alex has years of experience, covering the NFL, NCAA and more for a plethora of outlets including SB Nation, CLNS Media, Associated Press, The Wright Way Sports Network, Chatterbox Sports and The Front Office News. While a student at the University of Cincinnati, Alex served as Bearcast Media’s Sports Director for three years while hosting weekly talk shows and podcasts and broadcasting Bearcats Football and Men’s Basketball games.
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