Cin City: Red Alert to pressurise Pirates

So at which point in the season do we start taking the Pittsburgh Pirates seriously? I don’t want to jump the gun at all, but it seems to me that they’re proving to be the real deal.

The pitching, the defence, the bullpen, the (over-achieving) line-up, all the pieces seem to be there and rather than fold or shy away from big games, the Pirates just keep on rolling.

They sit second in the NL Central as things stand, sandwiched in between the first placed Cards and the third placed Reds.

The Reds, however, can’t keep assuming that at some point or other the Pirates are going to begin their downward spiral towards the wrong end of the division, because if they do, they risk getting used to that third spot in the division. ESPN’s ‘playoff potential’ rating for the Reds has slipped from the low 90’s to the 74 mark, whilst the Pirates have seen theirs sky-rocket up to 69, just 5 points behind the Reds. Granted, we’re not even at the all-star break yet, but suffice to say the Reds don’t want to be looking back in August and ruing the many missed opportunities they’ve had to gain some ground over the surging Pirates. Results haven’t been great, and far from those of a championship contending team.

Cincinnati has gone 11-11 this month so far, a record that wouldn’t feel out of place for a mid to lower league team, but that’s not what the Reds are. A couple of blips on the radar for the bullpen have let a few very winnable games slide by them. Currently on a mini tour of the West coast, the Reds often find themselves running into trouble at this point of the schedule, and things don’t seem to have changed right now as they lost a series in Arizona 2-1, before moving on to Oakland and then Texas on the road. Looking at the schedule up to the all-star break, the Reds have just two series to play at home with 4 to go on the road (including high-flying Atlanta and division foes Milwaukee).

Cincinnati has to find a way to get back to playing the winning style of baseball that carried them in the earlier part of the season which came about through a stellar rotational performance and a bullpen that was able to consistently close out games. The offence is still ticking along, with Jay Bruce pulling off a phenomenal week at the plate. Bruce went through a stint of 7 straight hits, each one blasted over the wall for a home run.

The streak ended last night albeit still managing a double in his first at bat. Phillips’ homer last night moved him past the likes of Pete Rose on the all-time home-run leaderboard for the Cincinnati Reds, and he moved his tally of RBI’s on the year to an outstanding 60. With the offence still producing there isn’t any reason to hit the panic switch just yet, but with the way the teams around them are playing, the Reds would do well to keep a close eye on their rivals and keep going about their business in as professional a manner as possible, and maintain the mentality of a championship winning ball club.

In other Cincinnati news

Hard Knocks is back people! And believe it or not, the HBO series have signed the Cincinnati Bengals to their second appearance on the show.

With the Bengals’ Hard Knocks debut portraying the ‘love-him-or-hate-him’ personality of Chad Ochocinco (now Johnson again), the blood, sweat, and tears that go into producing a final roster for week one of the season and the gradual coming together of both young and old, this year proves to be an even more enticing prospect for Bengals fans across the world.

With the likes of AJ Green and Andy Dalton attempting to carry the club deeper into the playoffs this season, the cameras will give a good indication as to the maturing process of a young Bengals squad that has shown so much potential in the past couple of years.

Could this be the year that it all comes together into a black and orange winning formula? The premiere is pencilled in for August 6th 2013 on HBO.