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And they are. When they host the transition year Cardinals this weekend, the Reds will be fighting to stay in the National League wild card race.

The Reds were gaining ground until they hit speed bumps on the road, losing six of seven games on their latest excursion. Their trip ended with a thud! -– a three-game sweep against the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers.

Now they are four games back of the New York Mets for the final wild card spot on this side of the majors.

So they will have plenty at stake at the Great American Small Park this weekend.

“I just told our guys we can choose to make the next five weeks like the best five baseball weeks of our life,� Francona said. “But we’re going to have to remember everything we’ve talked about from Day 1. And learn from things that happen and then move on. And hopefully get a little rest [Thursday] and come back ready to go.

"Because we’ve got to get after it.�

The Reds capped their frustrating road trip by striking out 19 times in a 5-1 loss to the Dodgers.

"I don’t think they’re pressing," Francona said. "I think that other team has some really good pitching, and when they get you down in the count and you start chasing, that’s what’s going to happen."

Now the Reds will try to reset against a Cardinals starting rotation that is running on fumes.

“This is a really resilient group, a lot of grit,� Reds designated hitter Gavin Lux said. "We’re going to use that off-day [Thursday] and reset and come back ready to play against the Cardinals on Friday.�

Writing for , Manny Randhawa noted that the pack is thinning out in the NL wild card race:

In the NL, there’s just one club within five games of the third wild card position -- the Reds are four games back of the Mets. The Cubs' lead over the Padres for the top Wild Card spot has been cut to one after Chicago was swept in San Francisco. And the Mets are three behind San Diego.

The Cubs and Mets will meet in the penultimate series of the regular season, from Sept. 23-25 at Wrigley Field. Chicago and San Diego split their six-game season series and each has the same intradivision record, but the Padres hold the next tiebreaker, which is interdivision record.

And the Mets were swept by the Padres in three games at Petco Park last month, but they’ll meet for another three-game series at Citi Field from Sept. 16-18.

If those teams beat each other up, that could help the Reds stay in the chase. But first they have to get back on track starting this weekend against a team that is essentially working on next year.

MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

Questions to ponder while star-crossed Sam Horn shifts his focus to baseball:

• If Kyle Schwarber can hit four homers in a game, why Jordan Walker learn how to hit four homers in a month?
• What else must JJ Wetherholt do to finally earn his promotion?
• How much future salary has Ryan Helsley lost while getting shelled with the Mets?

TALKIN’ BASEBALL

Here is what folks have been writing about Our National Pastime:

Patrick Dubuque, Baseball Prospectus: “MLB franchises are no longer beholden to the gate, and the insurance offered by revenue sharing can allow teams to enjoy years of expense-cutting rebuilds that, in the past, almost always ended in destitution and relocation. Meanwhile, baseball’s owners have applied lessons from each other, and other sports, as they grow increasingly efficient with their profit-seeking: raising prices to meet artificially inflated demand, bundling the product through cable and now ESPN’s ‘don’t you miss cable’ streaming package to make sure everyone, whether they’re fans or not, are paying as much as operators can get away with charging. The stadium experience continues to grow increasingly expensive to justify the lavish public financing necessary for their construction, which in turn justifies an increasingly expensive stadium experience.� 

Matt Snyder, : “The Blue Jays were expected to come in last place in the AL East and instead they have a four-game lead with less than five weeks to play. Only three AL teams (Angels, Athletics, White Sox) had lower over/unders heading into the season and it would take an epic collapse for them to miss the playoffs. Remember, they were once 26-28. The Jays have just been off-the-charts awesome since late May. The offense is among the best in baseball. The Jays are sixth in runs scored, first in batting average, first in on-base percentage and fifth in slugging percentage. They have a superstar in Vladimir Guerrer Jr., a star in Bo Bichette, a grizzled playoff veteran having a renaissance season in George Springer and such a strong supporting cast with the likes of Alejandro Kirk, Addison Barger, Nathan Lukes, Daulton Varsho and Ernie Clement having all provided significant contributions throughout the season, especially since late May. Since May 28, they are averaging 5.7 runs per game, which is the most in the majors.  The rotation is very interesting. Shane Bieber looked outstanding in his return from Tommy John surgery. Max Scherzer has been mostly very good the last several weeks. Kevin Gausman has been an ace in the past while José Berríos was once a frontline starter. Eric Lauer has a 2.76 ERA this season. There's a ton of volatility in there due to Bieber only having one post-TJ start in the majors under his belt, Scherzer's age and injury history and the diminished abilities of Gausman and Berríos. The best versions of everyone here, though, would be a top-shelf playoff rotation.”

Alden Gonzalez, : “The Dodgers placed Alex Vesia, one of their best and most frequently used relievers, on the injured list Tuesday, but the expectation is he'll only miss the minimum amount of time. Soon, they hope, they'll be about as close to whole as they've been all season. Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates and Kike Hernandez, returned off the IL in recent days, while Max Muncy, Tommy Edman and Michael Kopech are not far behind. It's why the Dodgers believe their best baseball might still be ahead of them. And given that the Padres have the easiest remaining schedule in the majors, it probably needs to be.”

Jay Jaffe, FanGraphs: “To put it delicately, Giancarlo Stanton’s stint with the New York Yankees hasn’t exactly gone according to plan. To put it less so, Stanton has amassed fewer WAR in eight years in New York than Aaron Judge did in 2024 alone. When the Yankees acquired Stanton in late 2017, the expectation was that he’d be the foundation of the team’s lineup for the next decade as he finished assembling his Hall of Fame case. However, since a solid if mildly underwhelming debut season in the Bronx, Stanton has suffered through a parade of injuries that has left him with only a single 120-game season, and his deity-level exit velocities have rapidly become his main offensive skill. Five hundred home runs, which once would have seemed like a disappointing final milestone for Stanton, increasingly looked liked the happy result. Stanton’s health has remained a problem, as he missed a large chunk of this season with a severe case of tennis elbow in both elbows. But the results he’s gotten when he has been available have been of classic Marlins vintage: a .313/.388/.663 line with 17 home runs and 1.9 WAR in 51 games, with the WAR total his best tally since 2021. With Judge first out with a flexor strain and then missing his usual power since his return, having Stanton bust out to this degree has kept the Yankees’ current spate of problems from becoming even greater.�

MEGAPHONE

“I shouldn't have even asked the question, but I was in the cage and I was like, 'How many guys have hit five?' And nobody said anything, so I was like, 'Oh, OK, well that answers the question.'"

Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber, after hitting four homers against the Braves before popping out with Vidal Bruján on the mound.