Reds Overtake Cardinals

The Cincinnati Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals 3-2 on Tuesday night, with rookie pitcher Anthony DeSclafani striking out a career-high nine batters over six innings to even his record at 7-7.
 
That’s nice, but it’s only part of the story.
 
The Reds, 48-56 and 18 games behind the Cardinals in the National League Central Division, have now started a rookie pitcher in six straight games. They are expected to start rookies over the next five games. Are they building for tomorrow? They must be, because they traded away today.
 
During the offseason they peddled Mat Latos to the Miami Marlins (DeSclafani was part of that deal). At this season’s non-waiver trade deadline of July 31, they dealt Johnny Cueto and Mike Leake. The future, it seems, is never today.
 
The Reds are looking at a third straight season out of the playoffs and likely their third consecutive fourth place finish in the division. They had a nice run from 2010 through 2013, appearing three times in the postseason, and that followed a drought of 14 years that included just two winning seasons.

Their strategy as far as pitching is a bit curious. As a small-market team, the Reds always worry about being able to re-sign top pitchers, who now command an enormous premium. The big-money Los Angeles Dodgers took Leake off their hands. Free-spending Miami had plucked Latos, who was a disappointment (as is the entire team). The Toronto Blue Jays, desperate to end a playoff absence that extends to 1993 – baseball’s longest – grabbed David Price from the Detroit Tigers and reliever Mark Lowe from the Seattle Mariners before the trade deadline.

Pitching is the name of the game. Ask the San Francisco Giants, who won the World Series on the strength of Madison Bumgarner. Ask the Dodgers, with Clayton Kershaw, or even the New York Mets, with a strong, young staff.

The Reds? Churning and burning. As arms mature, they get sent off to do their best work elsewhere.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman .