What do you think about these next 2 weeks?

[icehole3]

These are the 2 weeks that I feel if the Reds can hold steady will be pivotal in keeping themselves in the race thru the rest of the season. There's 2 more 9 game road trips left after this next trip, 1 on the west coast thatll be pretty tough, but this along with who St.L has to play, it doesnt get any tougher than this, I think if they crawl to the all star break at -3 games behind the Cards they will have done good.

St.Louis
3-Ari
3-Milw
3-@Col
3-@Hou


Cincy
3-Phila
4-@Chi
3-@NYM
4-@Phila

[SirFelixCat]

I just hope we stay w/i 2-3 games of first going into the ASG and I think we'll be fine.

[icehole3]

if StL goes 8-4 and the Reds go 7-7, they gain 3 games at least

[RedLegSuperStar]

It all depends who's starting.. No Halladay please. The Mets are gabage and shouldn't be an issue. Chicago is in termoil. And outside of Halladay the Phils have much of nothin except a homerun or nothin first baseman. Utleys hurt and Moyer is incosistant. I say we go 9-5 in that span.

[Degenerate39]

Originally Posted by RedLegSuperStar

It all depends who's starting.. No Halladay please. The Mets are gabage and shouldn't be an issue. Chicago is in termoil. And outside of Halladay the Phils have much of nothin except a homerun or nothin first baseman. Utleys hurt and Moyer is incosistant. I say we go 9-5 in that span.

Don't forget Cole Hamels. I'd rather face him than Halladay though

[Scrap Irony]

7-7 would be acceptable, as most of these games are away. RedLeg is certainly optimistic, but he's absolutely right in one respect: the pitchers they face are key. They'll hit Hallady at least once. (As it stands right now, I think the Reds will hit him once in each series, though I could be wrong.)

[OnBaseMachine]

Originally Posted by RedLegSuperStar

It all depends who's starting.. No Halladay please. The Mets are gabage and shouldn't be an issue. Chicago is in termoil. And outside of Halladay the Phils have much of nothin except a homerun or nothin first baseman. Utleys hurt and Moyer is incosistant. I say we go 9-5 in that span.

The Mets aren't garbage. They have one of the best records in baseball since late May and are 42-32 and only 1 1/2 games behind the Braves in the NL East. I'm hoping the Reds can take two of three from the Phillies at home and then find a way to win 5-6 games on the 11 game road trip.

[HeatherC1212]

They won't get Hamels this week because he just pitched yesterday. We may get Halladay for the last game of the series (I think he pitched on Friday) but other than that, it's kind of a crapshoot with the rest of the Phillies rotation. Sometimes they're great and sometimes they suck really bad. Santana has been downright hittable for the Mets lately so I'm not as fearful about facing him and I don't really know how their rotation is set up beyond Santana at this piont. I will be shocked if they don't take three out of four in Chicago because that team is a mess right now and I don't see them cleaning things up much before the Reds get there. I agree that if the guys can just keep it close during this trip, then they should be in really good shape. This will be a tough road trip but you have to think that knowing they're going to have some time off for the All Star break at the end of it is good motivation for the guys to kick some behind.

[icehole3]

Dickey for NY is pitching lights out, think he has a 6 game winning streak

[GAC]

The 11 game road trip in early July @ Chicago, NY, and Philly could be very telling concerning this team character IMO.

[cumberlandreds]

Huge stretch,that's for sure. The Red sjust need to tread water and stay at least no more than 3 games behind. The Phillies are really hitting the ball again. It's too bad they didn't face them about a month ago. The Mets are playing great too. They certainly aren't garbage. It's never easy in Chicago either. They should do well there since it looks like the Cubs have imploded. If the Reds can go 7-6 and hope the Cards don't go some kind of crazy winning streak they should be just fine heading into the All Star break.

[durl]

3 straight series on the road and playing Philly twice? That's one long road trip. I find myself just hoping that they stay within a game of the Cards so that probably means I'm not that optimistic.

I guess if it HAD to be in the schedule, I'd rather have this long road trip now than in August.

[OnBaseMachine]

This is definitely a brutal 14 game stretch coming up. My goal during this stretch is a 7-7 record. If that happens, the Reds would carry a 49-41 record into the All-Star break, which would probably put the Reds within a game or two of first place. Hopefully they can get this stretch started out on the right foot by winning two of three from the Phillies.

[mdccclxix]

Can you say "bullpen"? I think this 2 week stretch will rely heavily on the bullpen. Starters are likely to get knocked around more, and the offense will likely struggle to score so games will be close down the stretch. It's not Bill Bray that will save this bullpen, but Nick Masset returning to form, Coco being an elite closer, Owings getting more opportunity, DRH less, and Rhodes getting some rest.

[SMcGavin]

It's a really tough stretch. I'll say this, I am very glad the Reds had that five game winning streak last week to build a bit of a safety zone. Dropping a couple games to the Cards the next few weeks won't be the end of the world. But if we were already a few games back, it'd be a different story.