By splitting their Saturday doubleheader with the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Cincinnati Reds at least accomplished one thing. They avoided being saddled with the worst record to this point in the season in at least a half century.
The Reds began play Sunday morning with a record of 4-23, and a ghastly .146 winning percentage.
Cincinnati Reds on historic pace
That Saturday victory in the afternoon game of the split doubleheader broke the Reds’ nine-game losing streak which, rather amazingly, was not the team’s longest of this young season. The Reds lost 11 straight between April 12 and April 23.
In the past half century, only one team has reached the morning of May 8 with a worse record than the 2022 Reds. At the start of the 1988 season, the Baltimore Orioles lost their first 21 games, failing to win at all until April 29…by which time Cal Ripken Sr. had been replaced as manager by Frank Robinson. On May 8 of that season, the Orioles stood 3-25, a .107 winning percentage that was one and one-half games worse than the 2022 Reds.
The only other team in the past half century to reach May 8 without at least a .200 winning percentage was the 1981 Chicago Cubs. That Cubs team lost 18 of its first 22 for a record of 4-18, .182 as of May 8.
The 1988 Orioles went on to finish last in their division at 54-107, .335.
In the strike-divided 1981 season, the Cubs finished last in their division for the pre-strike portion of play at 15-37, .288. During post-strike play, the Cubs improved to 23-28, .451, standing fifth in their six-team division.
Chicago’s manager, Joey Amalfitano, survived, although the team’s general manager, Bob Kennedy, was fired in May.
The Reds have already fallen four and one-half games behind the fourth place Cubs in the NL Central. That’s saying something since the Cubs have the National League’s second worst record, 9-18. The Reds are 13 and one-half games behind the division-leading Brewers.
The Reds’ big problem is pretty obvious…pitching. The staff ERA is 6.71, baseball’s worst and by a substantial margin. The major league average is 3.77; the next worst team ERA belongs to the Washington Nationals, and it’s only 4.91.
But the Cincinnati Reds’ offense has also been no prize. Cincinnati ranks 28th in batting average (.205), and 29th in OPS (.598).