Thursday, June 20, 2002
Reds could feast on schedule ahead
By John Fay jfay@enquirer.com
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The Reds have been good against bad teams and bad against good teams this year.
To wit: Wednesday's 2-0 loss to Seattle gave the Reds a 16-22 record against teams over .500 and a 22-9 record against teams with records under .500.
Can you win that way?
“Yeah, you can,” Reds manager Bob Boone said. “If you go 16-0 against five teams, you don't need to do that well against the rest.”
“Most teams do that,” Reds general manager Jim Bowden said. “They play .500 against the best teams and beat up on everybody else.”
Because of the unbalanced schedule and the fact the Reds play in the National League Central, the bulk of their remaining games will be with teams below .500. Of the six teams in the NL Central, only the Reds and first-place St. Louis Cardinals are above .500.
Of the Reds' 93 remaining games 67 of them will be against teams currently below .500. Only 26 will be against teams over .500. The Reds' first 24 games in July are against sub-.500 teams. If the Reds are able to maintain their current percentages against teams above and below .500, they'll go 48-19 against the bad teams and 11-15 against the good ones.
That would add up to a 97-65 record.
“We don't look at that,” Boone said. “Those are statistics. We look at it as: We have a game to play tonight. ... If you look at the big picture, what happens? Pressure and tension.”
The reality is the Reds probably won't play as well the rest of the way against the bad teams, so they'll need to play better against the good teams.
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Reds could feast on schedule ahead
