Brandon Williamson leads 3rd place Reds into crucial Sunday doubleheader in Pittsburgh

The postponement of Saturday’s game between the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates set up several new storylines. The obvious one, of course, is that they’ll play a Sunday doubleheader to wrap the series, with Brandon Williamson on the bump for Cincinnati in the first one at 1:35 PM ET.

The subplot, though, is that Saturday saw both the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs take home victories of their own, officially pushing the Reds down into 3rd place in a division in which a) the Pirates always exist and b) the St. Louis Cardinals embarked on a sell-off at the trade deadline. At 61-57, the Reds now sit 3 full games back of the Brewers for the division lead and they’ve falled a half-game out of a Wild Card spot, too.

Remember the good vibes of June and July? I don’t blame you if you do not.

Williamson will hopefully continue his excellent run of form today to give the Reds their best shot at beginning the day on the good foot. He has pitched to a 3.19 ERA over his last 7 starts, allowing just a .670 OPS to his opponents in that time. The Reds offense, meanwhile, will be tasked with getting to Mitch Keller, something that’s been easier to do lately than it was at the beginning of the season. Keller has given up a whopping 27 ER over his last 26.2 IP across 5 starts, and it’s high time the Reds got back to socking prolific dingers anyway.

First pitch for the first game of the doubleheader is coming up in just over an hour.

Reds Lineup

Pirates Lineup