Cincinnati Reds manager David Bell saw the club’s 29-30 record after their win against the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday and it immediately reminded him of last season.
It was a season unlike any other year in Major League Baseball history.
There was the 60-game sprint, the Reds’ mad dash to the playoffs with their hot streak in the final two weeks and everything else that accompanied the unique season.
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“I noticed our record last night after the game,” Bell said Thursday morning. “That was the first time I really had thought that ‘Wow, this is right where we were at the end of the season last year.’ Pretty similar record. We were a little bit ahead last year, but totally different feel, obviously, and how we’ve gotten to this point.”
The Reds reached the playoffs with a 31-29 record in 2020. The Reds are 29-31 this year with 102 games left on their schedule.
There’s comfort in the return to a 162-game season for players. Nick Castellanos, who hit .225 last year, has talked about how much he pressed at the plate. There wasn’t much time for the Reds to climb back from their slow start and there weren’t enough at-bats for players who slumped.
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“Nobody has prepared for anything like that or gone through anything like that or has had to play games in empty stadiums,” Castellanos. “Last year, in general, under the circumstances given, we were happy that we got to play some baseball. But it’s just an odd year in total.”
The Reds have won seven of their last 10 games, but they dropped their series to the Brewers with a 7-2 loss Thursday. There’s some urgency with the way they’ve played in the last two weeks because they know they can’t fall too far behind in the National League Central standings.
They’re still a team that hasn’t been above .500 since April 21 when they had a 9-8 record.
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“I don't want to dismiss the performance over the last little bit, but we've got big, big plans, big goals, and we're not quite there yet,” Joey Votto said. “So, as it stands right now, we're heading in the direction we want to go, but we're not quite to that destination.”
The strange part about returning to a 162-game season in 2021 is that it’s not exactly a return to normalcy. It’s a unique challenge for pitchers because few threw more than 80 innings last year, and now they’ll be expected to double that number.
Injuries are up across the league. The New York Times reported soft-tissue injuries, which included muscle strains, were up 117% through spring training and the first two months of the season compared with the same period in 2019.
The Reds have 10 players on the injured list, which includes at least three soft-tissue injuries.
“Obviously you have to play well, you have to stay healthy, you have to do a lot of things to get to what our goal is by the end of the season,” Bell said. “At the beginning of the season, it was going to take not only everything we had, but it was a matter of just kind of outlasting other teams. I think we’re seeing that play out a little bit just with the health challenges, with the injuries by all teams.”
The Reds are hopeful that their injured players will provide a boost when they’re activated from the IL. Aristides Aquino is expected to return Sunday. Mike Moustakas could be back within the next two weeks.
Sonny Gray, Jeff Hoffman and Michael Lorenzen could all be back prior to the All-Star break next month.
One of the main things that all teams will be monitoring is how pitchers hold up in the second half of the season. Some teams used a six-man rotation. Teams were more cautious about starters throwing deeper into games.
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The sprint that all players experienced last season will return in August.
“It’s not going to get easier, but I think that’s why we’re all in this,” Bell said. “This year might be the biggest challenge for a lot of different reasons.”
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