Brewers show Reds again how far they are from hanging with top NL teams
· Yahoo Sports
MILWAUKEE – Tick, tick, tick.
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The Cincinnati Reds took two steps forward when they opened this two-city, NL Central road trip. And they've already taken three steps back since then – with two more games left against a Milwaukee Brewers division leader the Reds have had no answer for. Again.
The calendar turns to July on the heels of another dispiriting loss to the Brewers, 7-2 on June 30 in Milwaukee, and a second straight losing month for the Redlegs – who have precious few series left to earn a stay of trade-deadline execution.
Closer Emilio Pagán was finally back from a lengthy hamstring injury on Tuesday but not needed in a game that got away from starter Rhett Lowder in a flurry of fourth-inning hits by the Brewers (who scored four in the inning).
Hunter Greene, the All-Star flamethrower who was supposed to start Opening Day until having elbow surgery in March, returns July 4.
But to what? And to what end for a team that has buried itself into National League oblivion barely halfway into the season?
Since their heady 20-11 start that had them in first place through April, the Reds dropped to 19-34 since then with the latest loss to the Brewers. That's worse than every team in the majors except the miserable Colorado Rockies, who have exactly one more loss in that span.
The loss dropped the last-place Reds to 13 1/2 games behind the first-place Brewers.
Only three teams in the National League have worse records than the Reds with 78 games left in the season – but only 11 before the All-Star break, which could be the defining stretch for any last-minute mind-changing with the front office regarding the Aug. 3 deadline.
And the most damning statistic of all: They're just 4-19 against National League Central opponents this season, including 0-9 against the Brewers (0-5) and second-place Cubs (0-4).
Sal Stewart, who drove in both runs for the Reds on Tuesday, still looks like a Rookie of the Year favorite.
Young starter Chase Burns (9-1, 2.36), who faces Brewers phenom Jacob Misiorowski in the finale of the Milwaukee series this week, still looks like a feel-good All-Star story.
And Greene and Pagán might help make the Reds incrementally more competitive in the second half.
But it's all but impossible to picture a path to making up for two months of free falling, much less running down five teams to sneak back into the playoffs.
They don't catch the ball well enough. They don't hit well enough, or score well enough. And the health of their bullpen isn't well enough, Pagán's return notwithstanding.
And they can't beat the Brewers, who have schooled the Reds on and off the field for four years in small-market competitive baseball.
So Happy 4th of July.
And wait'll next year.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Brewers show Reds again how far they are from hanging with top NL teams