Why do the Reds struggle against the American League?

[NC-Red]

Seems like every season the Reds get hammered/overpowered by the offenses of the AL while also being limited offensively by much worse starting pitching. Why is this? The AL imo has been not as good as the NL the last few seasons but the Reds W-L record would not indicate this. Is it intimidation? Do they not matchup well? Cleveland is a terrible franchise and that mistake by the lake is a house of horrors for Cincinnati when other teams crush them. It's just very frustrating to see the Reds struggle against them since i hate the American League so much and it's a pride thing for the NL to beat the AL and the Reds just can't seem to do it.

[Raisor]

They're winning right now.

[NC-Red]

Red Sox now have the lead and are gonna sweep the Reds. Again the Reds just dont know what to do against American League hitting it seems like, can't throw strikes and they fool nobody when they do. Red Sox have 10 count that 10 hits in this game with possibly more to come. Red Sox aren't even a good team and they are having little trouble

[Tracy Jones]

Red Sox now have the lead and are gonna sweep the Reds. Again the Reds just dont know what to do against American League hitting it seems like, can't throw strikes and they fool nobody when they do. Red Sox have 10 count that 10 hits in this game with possibly more to come. Red Sox aren't even a good team and they are having little trouble

10 count em 10 whole hits????

Amazing!

No NL team has ever done that against the Reds!

[Tracy Jones]

The reason the Reds struggled in this series?

"Batting 8th...the DH...Neftali Soto"

When the guy you put into the lineup to bat for the pitcher hits like a pitcher, there's your answer.

Oh, and JJ Hoover stinks.

[dougdirt]

Doesn't the AL dominate the NL every year in interleague?

The American League is simply better overall. They have been for a long time. The last time the National League had more wins in interleague play was 2003. Since then, the AL has a .546 winning percentage over the NL. Over 162 games that would be good for an 88-74 record.

[RedlegJake]

What Doug said. Plus, the Reds-Red Sox games are just rinse and repeat of this whole season so far. Play it close and lose by 1.

[NC-Red]

Doesn't the AL dominate the NL every year in interleague?

The American League is simply better overall. They have been for a long time. The last time the National League had more wins in interleague play was 2003. Since then, the AL has a .546 winning percentage over the NL. Over 162 games that would be good for an 88-74 record.

they have but up until last season the NL had dominated the All star game and World Series. NL has better pitching and defense but the Reds pitching never seems to do much against AL bats

[dougdirt]

they have but up until last season the NL had dominated the All star game and World Series. NL has better pitching and defense but the Reds pitching never seems to do much against AL bats

A 7-game series and a fake game with players picked by fans isn't the same thing as hundreds of games each season telling you which league has more talent.

Also, realize what you said and what you didn't say. You didn't note that the AL has better hitting, but then noted how the Reds pitching can't do anything against their bats. It shouldn't surprise anyone that NL pitching isn't quite as good against AL hitting as it is against NL hitting. In all NL games the pitcher and bench guys hit. In only half of the AL/NL games does that happen.

[BluegrassRedleg]

The thing that always gets lost in this conversation is that leagues don't really play leagues (or conferences for other sports). It's all about matchups. Sometimes Team A owns Team B, Team B gets the best of Team C and Team C has the upper hand on Team A.

In going AL vs. NL, I wouldn't give it too much credence until both leagues start playing by the same set of rules.

[NC-Red]

watching the Indians t off on the Tigers is already giving me nightmares of their mediocre lineup hammering Reds pitching again

[MikeThierry]

Doesn't the AL dominate the NL every year in interleague?

The American League is simply better overall. They have been for a long time. The last time the National League had more wins in interleague play was 2003. Since then, the AL has a .546 winning percentage over the NL. Over 162 games that would be good for an 88-74 record.

I'm going to hold of judgement before I say that the AL is better, esp now that the NL has the kind of dominant pitching it has. Now that both leagues have an even number of teams, it seems a bit more balanced. Back when it was 16 NL teams and 14 AL teams, scheduling was unbalanced and you didn't necessarily have the best NL teams playing AL teams at any given point. One example of this was a series where LA and St. Louis (who were the top teams in their division at that time) played a 4 game series against each other while the other NL teams were playing against the AL teams. I think this also reflected in the interleague schedule where some NL teams would play less interleague games than other NL teams.

[NC-Red]

I'm going to hold of judgement before I say that the AL is better, esp now that the NL has the kind of dominant pitching it has. Now that both leagues have an even number of teams, it seems a bit more balanced. Back when it was 16 NL teams and 14 AL teams, scheduling was unbalanced and you didn't necessarily have the best NL teams playing AL teams at any given point. One example of this was a series where LA and St. Louis (who were the top teams in their division at that time) played a 4 game series against each other while the other NL teams were playing against the AL teams. I think this also reflected in the interleague schedule where some NL teams would play less interleague games than other NL teams.

THIS. Exactly This. Scheduling killed the NL in alot of instances up until the Astros went to the AL

[dougdirt]

Scheduling didn't lead to the AL having a .540 winning percentage for a decade over the NL.

[GAC]

Cleveland is a terrible franchise and that mistake by the lake is a house of horrors for Cincinnati when other teams crush them. It's just very frustrating to see the Reds struggle against them since i hate the American League so much and it's a pride thing for the NL to beat the AL and the Reds just can't seem to do it.

Cleveland is not a terrible franchise for one thing. Sure, they've had their ups and downs in recent years, frustrations, but one could say that about a lot of teams. You act like it's some sort of "injustice" that should never occur when they beat us. They had a similar "path" (and outcome) as the Reds last year ..... a winning record, runner-up in their division (we were 3rd), and lost in the WC play-off.

But this is a team that in the last 19 years has made 8 post-season appearances (2 WS's), and a .521 winning %. A lot of other teams in MLB have accomplished far worse, including the Reds (same time frame ..... 4 post-season appearances, no WS appearances, and a .491 winning %).