Disappointing Reds disappoint once again

Swept at the hands of the going-nowhere Nationals.

Brent Suter felt a tightness in his shoulder over the weekend and landed on the 15-day IL with a partial tear of a shoulder muscle that could well end his season altogether. Frankie Montas, meanwhile, was pummelled for a pair of dingers and 7 earned runs in his start in Friday’s series opener in Washington, the first of a trio of losses the Cincinnati Reds would suffer in their second-half opening series against the lowly Nationals.

That’s the ‘recap’ here, folks. It doesn’t matter the score, the Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game, or which of your favorite players (Elly) actually got on base (twice) and stole a bag (number 48). The reality is that this team, as currently constructed, doesn’t have it and rarely has all year, and at 47-53 with just 7 games remaining before the trade deadline it doesn’t appear they’re about to turn some magical corner.

I mentioned Suter and Montas because, in theory, their respective contract statuses as pending free agents would have made them attractive on the looming trade market in the event the Reds, at 47-53, chose to become sellers. Both saw their stock dip precipitously within the last few days, an end result significantly more destructive to the footnotes of this season than the Reds simply failing to show up in a must-win series once again.

If it seems as if the Reds find themselves in must-win series more often than others, well, they do - that’s just what happens when you lose enough early to make the hold out of which you must dig way more important incrementally than it does for other teams.

The Chicago Cubs finally put a win on the board in their Sunday game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, meaning there’s now a 5th place tag next to the Reds in the standing. That’s 5th place out of 5 in the lowly National League Central, or last place to those who haven’t yet figured that out.

They’re going to get TJ Friedl back in another week or so. They’ll probably get Matt McLain back for a few minutes before season’s end. There’s nothing, though, that they’re going to get in time to turn this thing around barring an absolute miracle, and today’s lackluster outing cemented that.

It’s a familiar feeling around here, one those of us who chose to be optimistic despite poor peripherals last July were keenly aware of. Those kind of good-luck opportunities simply don’t show up on your doorstep that often, and here the Reds are now hoping that they’ll maybe, maybe have a chance half as good as that one for the first time two years after balking at making 2023 a more short-term focused season.

2024, as it’s turning out, is ending up just another one on the lumpy pile of poor ones we’ve borne witness to for decade after decade around these parts.