The impossibly effective Milwaukee Brewers have surged to the top of the National League Central division, but the Chicago Cubs - at 65-46 - remain one of the powerhouses in all Major League Baseball this season. Chicago’s atop the NL Wild Card spots with a 3.5 game advantage over the San Diego Padres, who currently occupy the final Wild Card position.
It’s the Padres whom the Cincinnati Reds are chasing at the moment, the Reds fresh off taking 48 hours to lose to the Atlanta Braves in the Speedway
Classic - a loss that wrapped an overall series loss to their former NL West rivals.
The Reds never seemed settled all weekend. TJ Friedl was on the paternity list for the first portion of it, while the Speedway Classic’s logistics dictated that they were one of the very few teams that actually played on the day of the trade deadline (and had an early game Friday as it was a ‘travel day’ to get to Bristol). They were given a 27th player for Saturday - which rain turned into a 27th player for Sunday - and so it’s not really until today that they finally have their post-deadline roster fully assembled.
That means Zack Littel and Miguel Andujar have joined Ke’Bryan Hayes on the active roster, while the likes of Will Benson, Lyon Richardson, and Connor Joe have been relegated to AAA Louisville. Now, we get to see the team that Nick Krall & Co. chose to assemble, and whether or not it’s good enough to claw its way into the playoff hunt at the expense of the mighty Cubs.
Monday night’s game begins a pivotal series between these two clubs at Wrigley Field, with Nick Lodolo on the bump opposite the freshly acquired Mike Soroka, who the Reds just faced on July 23rd when he was still on the Washington Nationals. Little will debut as the Reds starter on Tuesday, while Andrew Abbott will get the nod in the series finale on Wednesday afternoon.
It’s an NL Central showdown, a rocking Wrigley Field with both teams having everything on the line in August. That’s the kind of baseball I fell in love with as a kid, and frankly I’m damn excited to watch it unfold again.
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