CINCINNATI (WXIX) – The Cincinnati Reds had a players’ only meeting on Sunday morning. As their worst week of the season led to a slide down in the Wild Card race and put their backs squarely against the wall, the hope was that the conversation would spark a turnaround.
The first step back from rock bottom wasn’t easy.
In the first inning of Sunday’s series finale against the Cardinals, the Reds had arguably their worst luck of any inning all season as one bounce after another went against them. While the Cardinals took the early lead, the Reds responded and earned a comeback victory.
Monday’s game against the Blue Jays tested the Reds even more. Hunter Greene’s strong start kept the Reds in front until the ninth inning, but poor situational hitting kept the team from pulling away. Emilio Pagán went on to blow the save in the top of the ninth. Then in the bottom of the inning, a double from TJ Friedl got stuck in the right field wall, the play got ruled dead and what would have been the game-tying run was sent back to third base.
More tests for a team that’s season has been on the verge of slipping away.
“You can’t control some of the stuff that happens,” Spencer Steer said. “So what? Let’s punch back. We’ve done a good job of that. There’s a lot of fight in this team.”
Noelvi Marte followed Friedl’s double with a walk-off two-run single as the Reds picked up a 5-4 win over Toronto. The Reds are four games back of the Mets in the Wild Card race with the Mets coming to town in a few days.
“We’ll keep throwing punches and see if they land,” Steer said. “That’s all we can do. All we can control is winning baseball games. That’s the goal. Win as many as we can and see how we stack up. Today’s win was pretty gutsy.”
The Reds aren’t dead yet. The last two days could have served as a final blow to their playoff hopes, which are still just at 4.5% according to FanGraphs. There’s a lot that the Reds still need to do better, but there’s still hope.
“I like this group,” Terry Francona said. “I like putting our uniform on and seeing if we can win. Sometimes, I wish we did better. But I still really enjoy it.”
The team meeting took place around 9:30 a.m. on Sunday morning. With the Reds coming off of a night game the previous day, there would have been a good reason for the players to look tired. Instead, as they filed out of the video room, they were laughing and morale seemed high.
“It was a good reminder that we’re all in this together,” Steer said. “When you go through tough stretches, you start to put too much weight on your own shoulders. You take it too hard on yourself. But it’s a team sport. We’re all in this together. We’re all feeling it together.”
Over the previous week, the Reds dropped series against the Diamondbacks, Dodgers and Cardinals. Hitters were pressing, frustration started to mount, there were poor situational at-bats and there were worse mistakes in the field.
“We felt like we were a little flat,” Ke’Bryan Hayes said. “We felt like whenever the other team, whether we scored our not, when the other team was punching us back we were staying flat.”
The response in wins on Sunday and Monday don’t save the Reds’ season quite yet. But in each of the Reds’ last two wins, they did take some big punches and find a way to come back.
“(The meeting) took some weight off of some guys’ shoulders,” Steer said. “It hit a reset button for us.”
One issue for the Reds during their slide in late August was that aside from Noelvi Marte and Ke’Bryan Hayes, none of their regulars were hitting their stride.
Spencer Steer has been fighting a leg injury all summer. Elly De La Cruz and Miguel Andujar’s quads have been troublesome. Matt McLain is dealing with the always challenging experience of your first year back from a season-ending shoulder injury. Austin Hays hasn’t been able to get into a rhythm vs. RHP this summer. Jose Trevino has had to play a lot more often with Tyler Stephenson on the IL, and Trevino has been slumping. Friedl was a hero in Monday’s win over the Blue Jays with a ninth inning double, but he has a .628 OPS over the last 30 days.
“Everyone here is beat up,” Steer said. “That’s what happens when you play for eight straight months.”
The best teams and the best players are the ones who power through down the stretch.
“If you’re playing hurt, you’ve still got to perform,” Steer said. “I don’t think that’s any excuse to say you’re OK only getting this many hits. I don’t think that’s a crutch that at least I want. Just because my leg is banged up doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t be performing at a high level. Injuries are a part of the game. You have to find a way to perform when you’re not at your best. That’s what the best players in all sports do.”
The Reds have one more potential source of a spark in 21-year-old Sal Stewart, the top prospect with a rare combination of traits. He’s an old-school hitter who uses the whole field and prioritizes getting on base over hitting homers. He’s also an aggressive, fired-up go-getter.
He made a good first impression in his big league debut on Monday with a single followed by an important run scored in the second inning.
“He seems like he’s a gamer,” Steer said. “I’ve heard he works really hard. He knows we’re fighting for something. It’s great to have a guy like that.”
The Reds still have a lot of work to do. Their players’ only meeting on Sunday needs to be as impactful as the one that they had back in June, which was followed by a stretch where the Reds won nine out of 11 games.
But following their two most recent wins, the Reds have kept themselves in the mix.
“Everyone has that collective mindset that at the end of the year, we’ll be where we want to be,” Friedl said. “There’s no moping. There’s no being upset. When guys pinch-hit for, it’s like let’s go. We’re all in this together. It takes all of us.”
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