Truly one of the biggest surprises of the 2023 Major League Baseball regular season are the Cincinnati Reds. Winners of nine in a row, Cincinnati has found themselves actually leading the National League Central at 38 wins and 35 losses. Yes, they are in one of the weakest divisions in all of baseball, but the Reds are leading the Milwaukee Brewers by half a game.
Pre-Regular Season World Series Odds
Before the World Series started, the Reds’s odds of winning the World Series were +25000. Only three teams in all of Major League Baseball had worse odds than Cincinnati. However with 73 games into the season, the Reds’s odds are now at +6600.
Nine Game Winning Streak
Cincinnati began their nine game winning streak on June 10, in an 8-4 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. The Reds beat the Cardinals again 4-3 on June 11. Since then the Reds have swept the Kansas City Royals (by scores of 5-4 twice and 7-4), and the reigning World Series champion Houston Astros (by scores of 2-1, 10-3, and 9-7), before beating the Colorado Rockies on Monday by a score of 5-4.
Who has starred during the streak?
During the streak, Reds rookie starting pitcher Andrew Abbott of Lynchburg, Virginia has had two starts where he has thrown 11 2/3 shutout innings. He had 5 2/3 shutout innings in the 8-4 Reds win over the Cardinals on June 10 and six shutout innings in the 2-1 Reds win over the Astros on June 16. The Reds also got a quality start from Hunter Greene of Los Angeles, California (two earned runs in six innings) in the 10-3 Reds win over the Astros on June 17.
Offensively, in the month of June, second baseman Jonathan India of Fort Lauderdale, Florida leads the team with five home runs and 15 runs batted in. Meanwhile, left fielders Jake Fraley of Frederick, Maryland, and Will Benson of Atlanta, Georgia are batting .360 and .341 respectively for the month of June.
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