CINCINNATI -- What now? What's left for the Cincinnati Reds? There will be no division championship and there will be no wild card.
In fact, it will take everything they have to fend off the onrushing Chicago Cubs to stay out of last place. And how embarrassing would that be?
So what does manager Bryan Price want to see out of his team as it plays out the final 18 games that the schedule insists they must play?
Price is never one to duck any question and attacked this on face on and with no dodges.
"I would like us to play with desire, competitiveness and pride in how we perform," he said. "It has been tough to go on the road and lose and see how many Reds fans travel with us to see us play and to not win more games for them."
After finishing the current homestand, three mores games with division-leading St. Louis, the Reds embark on their last road trip -- nine games in Milwaukee, Chicago and St. Louis.
During spring training Price emphasized that he wanted his team to be a team that no other team wanted to play, a team other teams feared.
"And that is associated with winning games," he said. "That's playing a team that is a winning team and we haven't been the second half (16-33) much at all. We have to play the game the right way, win more games. We will take no solace in continuing to lose at this pace."
The final 18 games, 15 are against the three National League Central teams fighting for playoff spots. And three are with the Cubs, the team trying to push the Reds into the basement and lock the door.
"If we're looking for a silver lining, if we don't play much better the rest of the way there will be no silver linings for us unless we play better these last three weeks, said Price."
A team hates to be labeled a spoiler team in September, but that's the level the team has reached, a spot it has earned on its own demerits.
"I'd like to play beyond where baseball sees us as right now," said Price. "Baseball sees us as a team with the worst record in the second half of the season. We have to wear that and it would be nice to get out from under that, to be a team that plays a role in some of these deciding games for the postseason."
It was July 14 and the Reds had just taken four out of five games from the Chicago Cubs (talk about false hope). They were 51-44, only 1 1/2 games behind first-place Milwaukee. And they were only a half game behind second place St. Louis, which was 52-44 at the time.
What has happened since is head-shaking. While the Reds have gone 16-and-33, the Cardinals have gone 28-20, pushing the Reds 13 games behind them in the standings.
And the Reds aren't the only team to do a big-time fade. While the Reds did a long-term fadeaway, the Milwaukee Brewers did a fast fade.
The Brewers led the National League Central nearly the entire season and were 53-43 at the break. Then came a disastrous 10-game losing streak and they've lost 12 of 13 to fall six games behind the Cardinals and also have fallen into third place behind second place Pittsburgh Pirates. Since the All-Star break, the Brewers are 22-27.
As one scout said as he walked into the press box early Monday before the Reds-Cardinals series, "When I scheduled this trip I expected it to be the two teams battling for the division championship. Now I'm here to just watch one team, the Cardinals."
So true, so true. There isn't much left for the Reds. Pride? A chance to ruin it for the Cardinals? A chance to pad personal statistics?
"We just have to keep our focus on playing better baseball," said Price. "That's still our priority. That fact that these games are more important to the teams we are playing is unfortunate.
"We knew coming in we had to play 162 games all-out and see where the chips fell," he added. The chips that fell came out of the wood chipper that has been the Reds season so far.
"This is good for us," he said. "It should be spirited baseball. We can make a positive difference for our club. In the last four years, we've only been in this situation, out of the race, one time and that was 2011. This is a different environment for us.
"We're capable of improving and certainly capable of winning a lot more games than we have," Price added. "We have to play complete games, better from start to finish."
Unfortunately, though, as postseason hopes are concerned, the Reds already are finished.
