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Today I'm going to talk to you about a little thing I like to call offense. You may not ever have heard of it because the Reds don't really have one this year. After 16 games, the Reds rank 2nd to last in the NL in batting average (.229), 3rd to last in OBP (.316), and last in SLG (.353). To give you an idea of how bad the Reds offense is, the St. Louis Cardinals lead the league with a .302 batting average, just 14 points lower than the Reds' on base percentage, and just 51 points below their slugging percentage.
The Reds have scored more than 4 runs just once in their last 9 games, averaging just 3.1 R/G over that span. Only 2 of their 9 batters with at least 2 PA per game have a batting average over .240. Similarly, only 2 hitters have a slugging percentage over .400.
The non-Joey Votto portion of this team is batting .209/.300/.314. Take out Votto and this entire team is Paul Bako. Let that sink in for a bit.
Obviously things have to change. Hopefully things will change. This team has more hitting talent than it has shown so far, but I sure wish there was actual production to back those words up. I knew the offense would be bad, but this is ridiculous.
Two former Red Sox face off on the mound today. Bronson Arroyo has been strong in his last two starts, only needing 81 pitches to go 7 full innings last Monday. He faced the Braves once last season and didn't make it out of the 2nd inning after giving up 7 runs on 7 hits. Obviously he hopes to do better today.
Derek Lowe has been pretty good in his first four starts as the Braves ace. He took the loss in Washington last Monday as he faced off against Nationals' rookie Jordan Zimmerman. He's been uncharacteristically wild so far this year, walking over 4 batters per 9 innings after walking under 2 per 9 IP last season. Since the Reds haven't been hitting the ball much, hopefully they can manage to take advantage of some wildness and get some HAVOC going on the base paths. It seems like that's our only hope to score runs these days.
It'll be another beautful day at the old ball park. Here's hoping the home team can make it a winning one as well!