The Reds Eager to Start the 2nd Half Against The Cardinals

Reds Get Ready For 2nd Half

Todd Frazier was one of the first Reds players to show up to the team workout on Thursday.

The team opens the second half with a ten-game homestand with the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday, trailing the Pittsburgh Pirates in the National League Central by one game.  The workout includes everyone but, Joey Votto, Jay Bruce and Aroldis Chapman; the three Reds who played in the All-Star Game on Tuesday night.

"Chapman called in," Dusty Baker said.  "He wasn't sure if he was required to attend.  At least he called.  He doesn't want to get into trouble anymore."

Scott Rolen and Miguel Cairo

It is Frazier's first full year and he can't wait to take on the team that has become the Reds' rival over the last three seasons and sometimes it's bitter rival.

"It is a chance to see where we are.  Why not start with them the second half?" Frazier said.  "It is like a new season.  You want to win as many games as you can coming out of the break."

The Reds ended the first half with a three-game winning streak and nine games over .500.  At 47-38 the Reds own the third best record in the National League, behind Washington at 49-34 and Pittsburgh at 48-37..

"I think we've played good baseball," Ryan Ludwick said.  "If anyone is disappointed with that there is something wrong."

The Reds feel that the best is yet to come.

"We've seen glimpses of how good we can be," Frazier said.  "We haven't got it all together yet."

Chris Heisey has enjoyed playing behind the Reds' pitching in the first half.  None of the five starters have missed a start and they had nine consecutive quality starts and even one the final game of the first half when staff ace, Johnny Cueto, fell one out short of a quality start.

"It's fun to watch," Heisey said.  "It makes it easier even when you're not in the game.  When the starters go deep, you're not up getting ready every inning or two.  We'd just like to be more consistent, myself included on offense.  We've had streaks where we hit well and then had streaks where we didn't score a lot of runs."

Baker would like to see a couple aspects of the Reds game improve in the second half.

"I feel good about going into the second half.  I feel great," Baker said.  "We're in a good position.  We haven't hit our stride yet.  We haven't played our best baseball for an extended period of time.  There are a couple things we'd like to improve.  We need to cut down on some of our walks.  We need to get some more walks on offense.  We have to have better pitch selection sometimes, especially hitting with runners in scoring position.  We have to be more aggressive and better and smarter in baserunning.  There are always things you want to improve on."

The Reds have played a lot of one-run games, 30 out of 85 and are 14-16 in them.

"We been in some good ballgames in the first half.  Some of them we had to come back on and fell short. If we improve on a few things we'll improve on the one-run ballgames which have hurt us."

This is a good race.  Everybody wants a run a way but every body that's ever won a race wants a good one.

The Reds are in position to win it's first division title in two years.