The Cincinnati Reds are now past the midway point of the MLB season, and after a particularly brutal past few weeks, the team is beginning to confront the reality that reaching the postseason may no longer be realistic for a second year in a row.

Struggles Continue

Last Saturday, the Reds played in their 81st game of the season, officially surpassing the midway point of their 162-game season. The game saw Cincinnati come away with a 9-7 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates, allowing the Reds to finally claim their first series win this season over one of their divisional rivals in the National League Central.

While dozens of games still remain — and it is certainly far from unheard of for MLB teams to pull off late regular-season comebacks — statistics nonetheless show that this year’s Reds team is significantly underperforming most of the core benchmarks that were established by last year’s Reds team, adding to the likely challenges ahead for Cincinnati as they attempt to turn around their floundering season.

The Reds currently have a run differential of -61 this season, placing them at 26th among all 30 MLB teams in that stat. On the offensive side, the Reds have a batting average of .228, and on the defensive side, they have a cumulative ERA of 4.60, the 23rd best in MLB.

Hope on the Horizon

One potential ray of hope on the horizon is the looming MLB trade deadline on Aug. 3. Last year, the Reds’ postseason run was bolstered by a series of bold acquisitions that the Reds made ahead of the deadline, including Ke’Bryan Hayes and Miguel Andujar, giving a late windfall to both the team’s offense and defense.

Original reporting: WLWT Cincinnati — read the source article.