Reds hope to ride late momentum into Wild Card matchup vs. Dodgers

LOS ANGELES -- Don't sleep on the No. 6 seed in the playoffs.

Recent postseasons have shown that Wild Card teams can be dangerous foes, including the bottom seeds. That's what the Reds are banking on this October, and it's what the defending World Series champion Dodgers will be guarding against during the National League Wild Card Series that begins on Tuesday night.

"I think we were kind of playing do-or-die, survival games pretty much every game leading up into the last game of the year," Reds outfielder/infielder Gavin Lux said. "So we were kind of already in playoff mode the last two, three weeks where every game we felt like we needed to win. It's whoever gets hot and the playoffs are a crapshoot. So I think you just never know. Anyone can beat anyone on any given night."

Since the introduction of the Wild Card format in Major League Baseball, 16 clubs have reached the World Series as a Wild Card team, and seven reached the tippy top of the summit.

“It just confirms that once you get into the playoffs, it doesn’t matter what your record was before. All that matters in the next game, the next pitch," Reds swingman pitcher Nick Martinez said.

The Reds, who finished 83-79 during the regular season, found a way into the playoffs by winning eight of their final 11 games while the Mets descended sharply into elimination on the last day.

“We’ve been playing playoff baseball for the last month now," Martinez said. "We’ve had our ups and downs and I think it showed over the last week that we played our best baseball and it’s the right time to do it.

“To get to the last Wild Card spot, those teams are usually the ones that are playing great baseball, getting on a hot streak the last week or two of the season. We’re looking to keep it going.”

Included in the final stretch was the Reds taking two of their final three games vs. the Brewers, which finished with MLB's best record. Entering the weekend, Milwaukee had taken 13 consecutive series from the Reds.

"Based on beating the Cubs four straight, based on what they did at the Deadline and struck gold at the Deadline … That was magnificent," Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. "And just the way they're playing now, getting themselves over .500. Every year, think of that team, the team that gets in at the last minute. The [2024] Mets ... The [2019] Nationals, the [2023] Diamondbacks. They [the Nats and D-backs] went to the World Series. Whoever gets in on that last day has got such momentum that I think it bodes well."

If anybody knows how to navigate his way through a postseason, it's Reds manager Terry Francona. This is the 12th time in 24 seasons he's led a club into the playoffs -- including his first seasons in Boston (2004), Cleveland (2013) and now of course, Cincinnati.

Francona has witnessed the gambit of situations.

"I've been on it [on] both sides. You feel like you're just ready to go get 'em, and you look up and you're down 0-3 before you can even take a breath," Francona said. "This is a whole new season. And it's funny, because even in a short series, you'll have ups and downs, and they just happen quicker. So, again, you try to have urgency without panic. Sometimes that's a hard one to traverse."

In 2023, the Diamondbacks won 84 games and the final NL playoff spot as a six seed. But Arizona didn't enter the postseason on a heater. It lost its last four regular-season games. Then the D-backs opened the playoffs with five straight wins, including four games on the road.

It earned that club a World Series meeting vs. the Rangers, which was the No. 5 seed from the American League. Texas started its postseason with seven consecutive wins.

The Dodgers will be trying to stop such a run of wins for the Reds in the first round.

"I think the dangers are the youthful enthusiasm, the naivete," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. "There's not a lot of experience. I think that sometimes it happens so quick that they're just riding a wave. And I think a way to combat that is we have to not take them lightly, because it's a really good ballclub and they played their way into the postseason. Also we're playing against a team that essentially feels like they have nothing to lose."

Pitching is often a big equalizer in the postseason and it’s been a strength for the Reds for much of the season. In their final 13 games, Cincinnati had 2.54 ERA. During the regular season, the Reds pitching staff had a 3.86 ERA, seventh-best in the NL.

“They have some really, really good arms. And I think in the playoffs, you can’t look past anybody. We’re preparing to see their best stuff. We know that they’re rolling," Dodgers outfielder Michael Conforto said of the Reds. "Obviously, slugging throughout the course of the season is going to get you a lot of runs and it’s going to get you a lot of runs and put a lot of games out of reach. But great pitching, great defense and clutch hitting is a recipe for the playoffs.”

The Dodgers had a 3.01 ERA in their final 13 games after having an eighth-best 3.95 ERA overall.