The Cincinnati Reds (17-21, 4th NL Central) are in South Florida on Sunday to complete a three-game series with the Miami Marlins (19-20, 4th NL East). Cincinnati opened the series against Miami on Friday with a 7-4 victory. Jake Fraley hitt a pair of home runs for the Reds in the win. Cincinnati has won two straight and three of its last four. Miami's loss to Cincinnati on Friday snapped a two-game winning streak for the Marlins. Cincinnati will play without eight pitchers and position player Joey Votto. Miami will play without six pitchers and position players Garrett Cooper and Avisail Garcia.
The Cincinnati Reds have a 4.93 ERA which is 26th in baseball and drop to 18th in WHIP at 1.49. Cincinnati's starting rotation has only eight Quality Starts which is 24th in baseball and the pitching staff is holding opposing hitters to an average of .274 which is next to last in baseball. Hunter Greene is leading Cincinnati in strikeouts with 51. Luke Weaver gets the nod on the mound Sunday for Cincinnati. This season the right-hander is 1-2 with a 7.36 ERA and 21 strikeouts in four starts.
Cincinnati is performing better at the plate than on the mound but the Reds could use improvement nonetheless. Cincinnati is 14th in team batting average at .246, 15th in on base percentage with .321 and drops to 25th in slugging percentage at .378. The Reds have scored 164 runs which is 21st. Spencer Steer has hit a team best fi ve home runs and Jake Fraley is second with four homers. Fraley is the leader in RBI with 24 and TJ Friedl is second with 18 RBI. Cincinnati has 10 players with 10 RBI or more. The Reds have hit 59 doubles, 7 triples and 31 home runs in 38 games.