On Friday night, a sellout crowd of 40,854 fans at Great American Ball Park watched the Cincinnati Reds play the Chicago Cubs. The Reds entered the game with a 40-40 record, 1.5 games behind the second-place Cubs.
With four weeks until the trade deadline and 10 upcoming divisional games, the Reds' stance at the trade deadline could be impacted by what happens over this stretch of games.
Reds first baseman Joey Votto hasn’t played July baseball that was this meaningful since 2013.
Assessing the state of the Reds earlier this week, Votto said the Reds had to go on a run soon. On Friday, he led the Reds to a 2-1 win over the Cubs with a go-ahead two- run double.
"(We're) 41-40 through the first half of the season, so we have to play some really strong baseball the rest of the way," Votto said. "We think we can do that. So we’re looking forward to it."
One day after Tyler Stephenson hit a walk-off single in a Reds win over the San Diego Padres, Votto was the hero as the Reds won consecutive games for just the second time over the last 15 games.
When Votto came up to bat in the sixth, the Reds had only three base-runners over the entire game. With second baseman Jonathan India on second base and right fielder Nick Castellanos on first, Votto hit a double down the right field line to score both runners.
