Cincinnati Reds: Historically, hot start may mean start of something great

Will the Reds quick start turn out to be fool’s gold?

Even the most historic starts to a season can fade into nothing. No team has scored more runs in their first six game than the 62 runs the St. Louis Cardinals cranked out in 1962. Thru 16 games in April, St. Louis had a +56 run differential with 125 runs scored.

The closest they ever got to that mark again was a +33 run differential in June. Otherwise, they were never even close. The hottest start you could ask for eventually sputtered into a 6th place finish as the Cardinals went .481 the second half of the season, finishing with 84 wins.

Another hot-start at the top of the list happened in 1978 when the Milwaukee Brewers scored 59 runs in six games. Unfortunately for the Brewers, 1978 was a time of incredible baseball. There were 13 different teams that finished with 85 or more wins and Milwaukee’s American League East division had five such teams, including a championship Yankees team. Thus, Milwaukee finished six-and-a-half games back in third place.

While both of these historic starts in St. Louis and Milwaukee sparked great success and led to 84-win and 85-win seasons, respectively, both of these teams failed to win when it mattered the most.

In 1962, St. Louis lost considerable ground by only going 6-12 against both teams that finished directly ahead of them in the standings; Milwaukee (Braves) and Pittsburgh. They also went 9-9 against a 64-win Houston team. Similarly in 1978, the Brewers went 5-10 against a Boston team that finished 5.5 games in front of them while also finishing 5-5 against a lowly, dead-last Seattle team.

Despite the historic starts to their seasons, neither team could win the games against their direct competitors. And both failed to take care of the bad teams. In current times, that means a sweep against Pittsburgh isn’t just a sweep against Pittsburgh.

You’re supposed to win those games. You need to win those games. And, as always, a series win against St. Louis should overjoy the fans in Cincinnati. These wins aren’t just flukes. These wins are this team, unlike the ’62 Cardinals and ’78 Brewers, taking care of business…so far.