Cincinnati will wrap up its three-game series at Wrigley Field on Thursday afternoon. The Reds came up short in a 9-3 final on Tuesday, as the Cubs snapped a three-game losing streak. This story was published prior to Wednesday night’s game, which was the second game of the series.
Cincinnati was virtually eliminated from playoff contention during the first half of the season, sitting 23 games below the .500 mark entering the All-Star break. The Reds were competitive during the first few weeks in the second half of the season, winning 10 of their first 16 games back. That nice stretch is a distant memory at this point, though, as Cincinnati has only strung together consecutive wins twice in the last month. The Reds won two out of three against Colorado last weekend before dropping Tuesday’s series opener in Chicago. They are 20 games back of the final National League Wild Card spot, so they will officially be eliminated soon.
Elly De La Cruz has been named the Southern League Player of the Month for August??
?? .355/.425/.688
?? 6 HR
?? 25 RBI
?? 12 multi-hit games
?? Reached base safely in 22 of 24 games pic.tw itter.com/5dJ0BPzfoS— Reds On The Rise (@RedsOnTheRise) September 7, 2022
The Reds, despite their struggles this year, have been a decent offensive team. They rank No. 17 in the majors in batting average, hitting at a .241 clip. Shortstop Kyle Farmer leads the team with 111 hits—the Reds are without Joey Votto and Mike Moustakas for the remainder of the season due to injury. Cincinnati is facing a Chicago pitching staff that is No. 23 with an ERA of 4.31. Right-handed pitcher Luis Cessa is going to start for the Reds on Thursday. He allowed two runs on four hits while striking out four and walking two across five innings against Colorado last Friday. Cessa posted his longest outing of the season, lowering his ERA to 5.18.