This Cincinnati Reds team is very exciting to watch

This Cincinnati Reds team is fun to watch. On Monday night they overcame yet another deficit and came out on the smiling side of the scoreboard.

The Cincinnati Reds found another improbable way to win a game on Monday night, putting 4 runs on the board in the bottom of the 8th inning and defeating the Chicago White Sox 5-3. The Reds have won 3 straight and 12 of their last 15 games. They are the hottest team in baseball right now and an exciting team to watch.

The Reds loaded the bases in the bottom in the 7th inning with 2 outs. The Reds best hitter, maybe of all-time, Joey Votto was at the plate with a 3-0 count. Votto flied out to center field to end the inning. Well, that was their chance, right?

Hardly, down 1-3 going into the bottom of the 8th inning, Scooter Gennett and Eugenio Suarez reached base safely. A single by Gennett, followed by a double by Suarez had runners at second and third with nobody out.

The next batter, Reds rookie Brandon Dixon, had a valiant at-bat but stuck out swinging. Jose Peraza drew a walk to load the bases again. Up next, Adam Duvall. Duvall hit a chopper down the first base line, Matt Davidson missed touching the bag at first then threw home and Gennett avoided the tag.

Next up was Billy Hamilton, who hit a sacrifice fly to center field which scored Suarez from third and advanced the runners.

With the pitcher’s spot due up and Jim Riggleman‘s bench void of many options, he turned to Alex Blandino. Blandino delivered. On a 2-2 pitch with 2 outs, Blandino sliced the ball down the right-field line. As the ball caromed off the wall, both Peraza and Duvall scored making the score 5-3 with the Reds in front.

Raisel Iglesias would come on to pitch the ninth and slam the door on the White Sox. Iglesias notched his 16th save of the season.

Lost in the shuffle of all the late-game heroics was the outstanding outing by Luis Castillo. Castillo had struggled recently, but the right-hander put together his best game. Castillo went 6.2 innings, allowed only 1 run and struck out 6 batters.

The brand of baseball the Cincinnati Reds are playing right now is fun to watch. We’ve seen 9 grand slams this season, 4 of which occurred in the last two weeks. It seems like every time you tune in the Reds have the bases loaded, and if you’re like me you think anyone on the roster can knock it over the wall. Heck, we’ve already seen two pitchers do just that.

The young rotation of Castillo, Sal Romano, and Tyler Mahle have pitched well. Throw in the recent outings of Matt Harvey and Anthony DeSclafani, and this Reds pitching staff could be scary.

How about the bullpen? Until last night, pitchers like Jared Hughes and Amir Garrett had been lights out for the Reds. The beautiful thing that last night’s game illustrated was, this team is playing for one another. When someone doesn’t perform well, the whole team seems to rally behind them and step up their game.

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While a playoff push appears to be more of a pipedream than a reality, it is fun and entertaining to see this team playing up to their potential. The Reds are only 9.5 games out of the Wild Card, and at the rate they’re playing, you can’t count them out just yet.