Premium pitching matchups punctuate Reds road trip to St. Louis

Well, the Cincinnati Reds (20-37) eight-game homestand against two of the not-so-good teams in the National League didn't quite go as planned. The Reds dropped 3-of-4 to the Washington Nationals and split a four-game set with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

To add insult to injury, or injury to insult, the Reds will now be without Tyler Stephenson for the next four-to-six weeks after the catcher left yesterday's contest with a broken thumb. Albert Almora Jr. left the game with a shoulder injury, and Nick Senzel has been sidelined for the past two games with a back strain.

Just when it looked as though the Reds were getting healthy, Cincinnati seems destined to make a few transactions this afternoon prior to the first of three games against the St. Louis Cardinals (32-26). This will be Cincinnati's first visit to Busch Stadium this year and their second-overall meeting with their division rivals this season.

Can the Reds' rookie pitchers silence the Cardinals' bats?

The pitching matchups in this series look to be superb; more on that in moment. The Cardinals enter Friday's game against the Reds trailing the NL Central leading Milwaukee Brewers by just 0.5 game in the standings. Cincinnati, on the other hand, is 12 games back of the Crew.

Believe it or not, every team in the National League Central Division is on a losing streak. The Reds have lost back-to-back games, St. Louis has dropped three straight, and the Brewers have lost six in a row.

Perhaps, if Cincinnati had handled their business this past week at home, the Redlegs would have actually gained some ground in the division. As it stands, every team in the NL Central is .500 or worse in their last 10 games.

The Cards are returning home after an eight-game road trip. St. Louis is 16-11 at home and will be looking to gain ground on the struggling Brewers. Two of Oliver Marmol's starters are on the IL at the moment, but the Reds will still face two of St. Louis' most-formidable starters during the three-game set.

Matt Reynolds is earning his spot in the Reds lineup.

Safe to say that Nick Krall and the Cincinnati Reds front office will be having some in-depth conversations in the the coming weeks as the team looks to welcome back Jonathan India, Donovan Solano, and Max Schrock.

But one player who cannot be on the chopping block at this point in time is infielder Matt Reynolds. The Reds acquired Reynolds from the New York Mets earlier this season and the 31-year-old has been one of the team's best performers of late.

Reynolds is hitting .308/.333/.654 in his last 26 at-bats. Over that seven game stretch, Reynolds has eight hits, including three home runs, and six RBIs. Reynolds is also a very versatile defender as he's seen time at all four infield spots as well as some spot appearances in the outfield.

When India and Solano return, Reynolds playing time will undoubtedly take a hit. But, after Cincinnati optioned Jose Barrero to Triple-A Louisville earlier this week, there's a chance that Reynolds could stick around until some trades are made later this summer. Schrock also has minor league options remaining.

Prediction: Reds pitching leads series-sweep over Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals are in the bottom-half of the league in terms of OPS. The Cardinals have also been swinging freely of late and have the second-most Ks in the NL over the last week. If Luis Castillo and Hunter Greene can command the strike zone, the Reds have a good shot to take the first two games of the series.

Graham Ashcraft isn't necessarily a strikeout pitcher, but he induces a lot of ground balls. The Reds lead the league with a .311 batting average over the last seven days. While losing Tyler Stephenson certainly hurts, very few players are swinging a better bat than Joey Votto right now.

I'm going bold here! Look for the Reds to sweep the Cardinals this weekend in St. Louis. That may seem a bit fool-hardy after watching the Cincinnati bullpen implode this past week, but I think the Redlegs are looking forward to this challenge. By the way, the Cardinals' bullpen hasn't been much better.