Road record will determine whether the Reds are contenders or pretenders

Currently sitting at 9-9, despite finishing their latest home stand below .500, the Cincinnati Reds hope to continue their hot start at Great American Ball Park that has seen them come out victorious in three of their first four home series. The confines of the Queen City have been kind to these “son of a guns”, as they are 7-5 and have outscored opponents 93-61 during that time.

Having this strong start and dominant home wins have even propelled the Reds to be featured as the No.4 team in MLB.com’s recent Power Rankings. The road, however, hasn’t been so kind to the Reds, and they are gearing up for their second adventure away from GABP which includes a series out west with the league powerhouse Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Reds have been ice-cold on the road.

While their record at home is hot like fire, their record on the road has been cold as ice. Their first trip out west brought the Reds back down to earth as they finished 2-6, lost both series, and were outscored 30-18.

Tyler Mahle and Wade Miley had strong starts in those two wins, and the Reds lost a nail-biter 7-6 to the San Francisco Giants to lose that series. The highlight of that trip however was Joey Votto becoming the first in Reds history to hit a homerun into the famous McCovey Cove, with Mike Moustakas becoming the second Red the following evening.

Winning at home won’t be enough to reach the potential this team is meant for and there are only 71 home games left, while 75 more road games await, proving vital to success at conquering as the season wears on.

Facing teams like the Minnesota Twins, San Diego Padres, Chicago White Sox, and the New York Mets among others each offer their own difficulty, but luckily will happen later in the season.

To stress the importance of winning away from your home park, for the previous five seasons, the team that has won the World Series has been above .500 on the road. Depending on potential end of season seeding, not every team in the playoffs plays at home, as evident in the 2020 Wild Card in which the Reds played in Atlanta, so if the Reds do make the playoffs they will need to be efficient in hostile road environments.

The Reds need to dodge another rough road trip.

While it is way too early to overreact as the Reds have only had one road trip, facing teams such as the Dodgers this early in the campaign can set the tone as the season wears on. That series, among other late starting games out west, can either deflate a surging club or can ignite a hot start further.

For this upcoming road trip the Reds will play in St. Louis against the Cardinals, and in Los Angeles with the Dodgers. The recently returned Sonny Gray also has two starts on this trip; one against both teams, so it will be crucial that he improves from his first start in which he went 4.1 innings pitched in which he allowed six hits and two earned runs.