Reds down to 3 games back

Who could have predicted after the beating the Reds took at the hands of St. Louis that the team could bounce back so quickly and look to be playing the best baseball? The Pirates and Cardinals are beginning to take a fall mostly because of playing one another right now, and the Reds are taking advantage by beating the teams they should. The Reds have won seven of eight games, including a series win over San Diego on walk off Sunday fashion by Joey Votto and a sweep of the lowly Cubs. The Cubs never seem to have enough scoring prowess to beat the Reds, but they were able to battle for extra innings on Tuesday and the Reds were resilient enough to score two runs on a hit by Shin-Soo Choo and win 6-4.

The pitching has been absolutely incredible for the Reds lately. Bronson Arroyo and Mat Latos are easily noticeable in affecting the Reds in a positive way, but bullpen options like JJ Hoover and Jonathan Broxton have been pitching as well as anyone in baseball. Hoover's scoreless innings streak is starting to put him in elite Reds company. Broxton has given the Reds his classic closer stuff in a lesser role. Aroldis Chapman's fastball is still too tough to pick up for opponents and Sam LeCure is the best Red at getting out of tough spots. 

As the Reds head to Milwaukee, the team expects to continue to get stable pitching and use recent hitting spurts by Todd Frazier and Zack Cozart to guide them to more and more wins. Frazier is finally getting out of his deep slump with multi-hit games and even a homer in today's game. The three game deficit could become 2.5 with another Pittsburgh loss tonight. Watch out for a shift in the Central. This division could easily see the Reds looking down at St. Louis and Pittsburgh in a couple weeks. The team that plays best late in the season usually ends up with the best status in the standings. The Reds are defending champs of the Central and they are playing like they really don't want to give that crown up in 2013.