The Reds have embraced negative conditions over the last three weeks as they’ve played their best baseball of the season. They fought to pick up two wins in the rain over the Arizona Diamondbacks, and they closed out a rain-shortened win over the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday.
While there’s not an official stat that tracks this, there have been several games recently where the Reds have had to play through the elements. It’s been a rainy summer in Cincinnati, but the Reds have been able to play through it.
Francona said that after a rain delay, “All of a sudden, it’s like, ‘Ok, here we go.’ They’ve been sitting around for three hours. It’s not easy. But if you handle it better, you give yourself a better chance to win.”
The Reds have been doing that recently. It coincides with a stretch of games where the Reds have shown late-game resilience and the ability to come back. Reds reliever Brent Suter views the Reds’ success in the rain and the Reds’ late game success recently as intertwined.
“It tests your toughness and resilience,” Suter said. “Some teams have more than others. It’s an aspect where chemistry really comes into play because you spend a lot of time together waiting around. You make those moments enjoyable, have fun and enjoy each other in the clubhouse. That helps a lot to withstand the delays and then have fun on the field too. Chemistry and toughness come out.”
Francona said rain and rain delays weigh the most on the starting pitchers who have their routines interrupted. On Wednesday, Lodolo pitched around and through the rain and the rain delay and delivered a quality start.
“You can’t try to pitch to that (the rain) or anything,” Lodolo said. “I had no idea what was going to happen. So, you go as long as you can until, basically like today, it happened to work out pretty good for us.”
The Reds are trying to be a team that wins with an aggressive and gritty style of play. They’re embracing small ball, base running and good defense, and those qualities can help a team grind out wins in unideal conditions.
They’re also useful skills to have when you’re behind in a game. Over the last three weeks, the Reds have shown much more fight late in games when they’re trailing. A dramatic win on Sunday in Detroit epitomized that.
“Those are the most fun ways to win, when you come from behind,” second baseman Matt McLain said. “When you put pressure on guys and they make a mistake and you capitalize on it.”
As the Reds have gotten closer into the playoff mix, the starting pitching hasn’t been firing on all cylinders. There hasn’t been an unexpected power surge from the bottom of the lineup. The bullpen has been fine but unspectacular.
The strength of the group during this stretch has been the team’s attitude.
“We’re playing really great baseball,” starting pitcher Nick Martinez said. “You’ve got to keep going. We’re winning games. Everyone is invested.”
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