Sunday, August 28, 2005

Reds strong second-half continues

The beats goes on for the Reds, who have blown through Washington and Pittsburgh with five wins in six attempts. Things are really rolling along. Milton pitched well last night, and Hudson pitched well today, and in both cases, the offense eventually kicked in, and we picked up the wins. We go again tomorrow in a daytimer @ Pitt to try and take a four game sweep from the Bucs.

Junior has a 14-game hitting streak, and continues to fend off rumors that he will be traded. Now, however, a little test comes. After Monday, we have Houston and Atlanta on the road...these are good teams playing for the post-season. It will be a nice barometer that will indicate whether we are close to putting enough power together to compete next season.

Now, as for tracking our goals:

3rd place: Very much in play. We are only 1.5 games behind the Brewers. We have seven games left with Milwaukee and three with the Cubs, so we have an opportunity to put ourselves into third place on the field. Given how this season started, that would be a remarkable accomplishment.

.500 overall--We are 62-68, six games under. We would have to go 19-13 on the way home to finish .500 overall. Tough, but not impossible.

.500 after the break--We re 26-15 after the break. With 32 games left, that makes 73 total. We only have to win 11 of our remaining 32 games to reach this mark. It would be a significant accomplishment, as well.

Leading the NL after the break--At 26-15, we have the best record in the NL, by a 1/2 game over the Cardinals. We have plenty of games left with them. There are stil a number of teams in our neighborhood, so this one will probably end up being a stretch.

Equalling last year's record: We won 76 a year ago. 14 wins in our last 32 would get us there. I have to believe we will make this.

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