KANSAS CITY — This is starting to get serious.
Well, maybe not ready-to-print-playoff-tickets serious just yet. This was the Kansas City Royals, after all, that the Cincinnati Reds defeated the last two nights in a pair of comeback wins, including 5-4 on Tuesday night.
And those other two wins during this four-game streak were against another last-place club, in St. Louis.
But wait until after Thursday’s first off day in more than two weeks.
You want serious? You want litmus tests and playoff-caliber, in-your-face, what-do-you-got, think-you’re-any-good, big-league gut checks?
Bring on the World Series champs in Houston. Bring on the powerful Atlanta Braves at home a week later – with the contending Baltimore Orioles right behind them.
The Reds will get a pretty good idea how much they have – if not how much they might want to look for at the trade deadline – after that stretch.
But until then?
“It’s fun,” Reds reliever Lucas Sims said after inheriting a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the seventh Tuesday night and striking out Nick Pratto and Salvador Perez in the key sequence of a win that clinched the Reds’ fifth series win in the last six series.
“It really kind of shows the character we have,” Sims said. “It takes all 26 of us to pull together and grind these things out.
“Winning is fun.”
In handing the woeful Royals their eighth consecutive loss, the Reds won for the seventh time in nine games, improving to a National League Central-best 26-20 since their 7-15 start.
They’re still two games under .500, but that’s also a high-water mark for them since that ugly start.
And on a night both the Milwaukee Brewers and Pittsburgh Pirates lost, it meant the Reds moved to just 2 1/2 games back of first place, 1 1/2 games back of second in the division.
And did we mention comeback wins?
They’ve done that the last three days, giving them 22 come-from-behind wins this season. Only the Orioles and Los Angeles Angels have more (23 each).
“It’s good to be in the position we’re in, but now we’ve just got to keep it going,” manager David Bell said. “It’ll be good to have an off day. It’s been a while. So we’ve got one more game to really sprint, and get an off day and go into Houston.”
Wednesday’s series finale in Kansas City marks the 16th game in 16 days for the Reds (9-6 in that stretch).
Then a much needed off day.
“Of course, it doesn’t stop there. We’ve got to keep going,” Bell said. “We’re looking forward to what we have ahead.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Reds beat Kansas City Royals for another series win