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Will the Reds' woeful West Coast road trip spell the beginning of the end for their season?

Will the Reds' woeful West Coast road trip spell the beginning of the end for their season?
Posted at 4:23 PM, Jun 14, 2017
and last updated 2017-06-14 16:30:54-04

The Reds are struggling. 

They are wrapping up a horrendous six-game West Coast road trip. Going in to Wednesday's game, the Reds were winless.

The sweep against the Los Angeles Dodgers included one of the biggest blown games longtime Reds reporter John Fay can recall.

In one past instance, the Reds rebounded. In another, the big loss spelled the end of the season.

One was when Francisco Cordero gave up a grand slam in 2010 against Atlanta. The walkoff ended a game where the Reds blew a 9-1 lead. But the team bounced back and won seven of the next nine games. Eventually, the team won the National League Central.

On the other side, in 2014 the team blew a big lead with closer Aroldis Chapman against the Colorado Rockies. That game was similar to what happened with closer Raisel Iglesias against the Dodgers. In 2014, the team did not recover. Cincinnati had been around .500 and then lost seven straight

"It's pretty critical that they play well...," Fay said. "This is a time where they have to step up or it's starting to get away from them a little bit, but I've said that before and they've recovered."

The key has been if the Reds get decent starting pitching the team wins. If the starting pitching isn't good, the team loses.

But help is on the way: Homer Bailey could be back in a few weeks and Brandon Finnegan isn't far behind him.

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