After the Cincinnati Reds beat the New York Mets 4-3 on Tuesday night, Reds first baseman Joey Votto looked back at what the Reds accomplished last September.
While the 2020 season was only 60 games with an expanded playoff, the Reds were six games under .500 and 3 1/2 games out of the Wild Card race on September 10. In 2021, the Reds were 6.5 games back after Tuesday’s game and three wins over .500 on July 21.
“We won quite a bit at the end in an abbreviated season,” Votto said. “We don’t give up on ourselves. We do expect to get hot at some point and win a stretch of games over an extended period of time. Our expectations are to win the National League Central. That hasn’t changed from Opening Day until now.”
The Reds opened the second half of the season with four straight losses, including three to the division leading Milwaukee Brewers. In Friday’s game, the Reds bullpen allowed six earned runs. On Saturday, the Reds didn’t take advantage of chances to get a game-winning hit and lost in 11 innings.
On Sunday, the Brewers blew out the Reds in an 8-0 loss. On Monday, the Reds had another disappointing extra innings loss.
