The Diamondbacks have a chance this afternoon to do something no team has managed in 2025: sweep the Reds. For Cincinnati are the only team in the majors not to have suffered a sweep. They have had that solitary distinction for more than two months. It was June 15 when both the Mets and Yankees lost their sweepless status, leaving the Reds alone. There have certainly been opportunities, going back to April 23, when they took the last game of a series in Miami. But they have always prevailed, and are 8-0
when facing a sweep – most recently, a win over the Brewers last Sunday. Cincinnati were two outs from defeat, but an error led to the tying run, before winning 3-2 in ten.
Should the Reds stave off defeat today, and get through the rest of the schedule without getting swept, they’ll be the only NL team outside Atlanta to manage the feat over a full season since 1998. The Braves, weirdly, have done it three times: 2002, 2004 and 2022. But it’s interesting Cincinnati have only the seventh-best record in the league. For there’s another, less pleasant record the Reds hold: the longest time without advancing in the playoffs. Not just baseball either, but across all four major sports. The last time Cincinnati won a postseason series was when they beat the Dodgers in the 1995 NLDS. It’s a full decade more than the next worst in baseball: the White Sox’s last was the 2005 World Series.
Indeed, the Reds last playoff victory was 2012, which was also the last time they finished better than third in the NL Central. Doesn’t look this season will end that one, since they are eight games back of the second-placed Cubs right now. A win for the D-backs would give them a split of the season series, after the Reds won all three in Cincinnati. Probably not important, but in the highly unlikely event of a tiebreaker being needed, that would send it to record within their division. That could still change, but at this point, the Reds are 16-20 and the D-backs are 20-17, giving Arizona the advantage.
