The Reds never aspired to a fourth place finish. Like every other team their goal when they started spring training in February was certainly to make the playoff and compete for the World Series tittle.
The teams worst start since the Great Depression at 3-18 put an anchor on that goal. They bottomed out on June 9th at 22-43 record, 21 games under .500 and 17.5 games out of first place and 10 1/2 games behind the Pittsburgh Pirates for fourth place at 32-33.
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After a 12-4 run, the reached the half-way, 81-game point of the season with a record of 34-47 just 4 1/2 games behind the Pirates.
"I told them to concentrate on catching the Pirates," Jim Riggleman said. "A little scoreboard watching is good. You're not going to catch up to first place in two weeks, you catch the team in front of you and go from there."
Part of the resurgence has been the offense up and down the lineup has gotten better. From Eugenio Suarez, who leads the National League in RBI with 59 and Scooter Gennett, who leads the league with a .331 batting average to Adam Duvall and Billy Hamilton. Duvall and Hamilton have struggled batting under .200 until recently. Hamilton has hit safely in nine of his last 11 games, improving his average to .215. Duvall has raised his average to .202 by hitting .274 in his last 21 games. Duvall has been productive even with a low batting average with 12 home runs and 46 RBI.
Reds' starting pitching has improved at the same time.
The Reds starting rotation of Anthony DeSclafani, Matt Harvey, Luis Castillo, Sal Romano and Tyler Mahle are 10-7 in the month of June with a 4.41 ERA dropping their ERA from a high of 6.05.
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In the last 15 games the Reds have turned in seven quality starts with two from Romano, Harvey and Mahle and one from DeSclafani.
This has allowed Riggleman to use his bullpen which has been very good all season more efficiently.
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