How about those Reds! The Reds turned the calendar on May, putting the bad month behind them, and things have been looking up in June. The Reds went into St. Louis and got business done, sweeping the Cardinals in a four game series on the road. Then they came home and swept the Rockies, scoring 27 runs in 3 games. After the back to back weekend sweeps, the Reds are over .500 and have moved up to third place in the NL Central!
The Reds main issue has been the bullpen, the worst in the entire league. The offense has been doing everything they can to win games, but the bullpen continues to blow the leads made for them. The two best hitters in the league on their roster: Castellanos and Winker are leading the ENTIRE LEAGUE in batting averages (Vladdy Jr. is coming for Winker though), but they alone can’t make up for all the bullpens' flaws. This issue was evident as the Reds blew a 7-0 lead to the Cardinals in just ONE inning.
The Reds have also been plagued by injuries this season from both pitchers and players. On the mound Sonny Gray just went on the IR for a groin injury, Antone went on the IR for forearm inflammation, and Lorenza is out until at least the end of the month. Votto was out for a month, and Senzel and Moustakas are still out. Considering all these injuries plus the state of the bullpen, the fact that the Reds are above .500 is pretty amazing.
The Bengals have completed their OTA’s and started mini camp. The biggest news out of Paul Brown Stadium is that Burrow is back from his knee surgery and practicing. He is finally starting to practice getting some pressure, something Zac Taylor was hesitant to do for some time. According to The Athletic, after one practice Burrow ripped off his knee brace, got with rookie Ja’Marr Chase, and went 7-7 on deep balls. Before his injury Burrow struggled in throwing passes longer than 20 yards, so him staying extra to practice is a good sign.
Joe Mixon has been practicing with the team but declined to speak to the media. After only playing five games last season, there is still no official word on how Mixon’s foot is. When camp officially begins in July hopefully there will be more info on Mixon.
All eyes will be on Burrow entering the season, but luckily for him he has one of the best wide receiver cores in the league. It will include rookie Ja’Marr Chase (former Burrow teammate), Tee Higgins, and veteran Tyler Boyd. With this receiver room plus a healthy Mixon and Burrow, the Bengals offense should keep them competitive.
FC Cincinnati has not played since the end of May, as the MLS has been on an international break for all the tournaments currently occurring. FC is currently last in the Eastern Conference with a record of 1-1-4. This is their third year in the MLS and it seems about time to start wondering if this really was a good move. In 2019 and 2020 they finished dead last in the standings and look to be headed that way again this year. Maybe the fancy new stadium will help the team, but that seems unlikely.
In local high school sports news Elder lost in the state baseball finals 6-5 to New Albany. They scored four runs in the sixth to cut it to 1, but it wasn’t quite enough. The Panthers fell just short of their 18th state title and finished with a record of 25-9. One of those 9 losses came at the hands of Walnut, who crushed them 14-2. Walnut had a historic baseball season, advancing all the way to the District round of the state tournament, something no other Walnut team has done. They finished with a record of 19-10, the most wins in school history.
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