Reds brace for division litmus test, routed by Pirates in series opener

PITTSBURGH – The Cincinnati Reds expect to learn a lot about themselves, if not the National League Central, by the time the get home from a two-city, seven-game road trip. For now, they’re getting their fill of learning how serious the long-scrubby Pittsburgh Pirates are about making noise in the division this season. Even before the weekend series in Pittsburgh kicked off with another Reds lopsided loss to the Pirates, Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson said this version of the lineup-bolstered Pirates looks for real – certainly a lot more than they did the last couple of years.

“They’ve always had arms and been able to throw, and now they’ve added some pieces to their lineup,” Stephenson said of a club that has two of the best under-24 players in the game in Cy Young winner Paul Skenes and shortstop Konnor Griffin, who turned 20 barely a week ago. “This is a really good team,” Stephenson said. Skenes won’t pitch in this series, and the Pirates already pocketed a series-opening 9-1 rout that snapped their five-game losing streak and ran their early record against the Reds to 3-1 this season.

Just like that, the National League Central restored its status as the only division in baseball in which every team had a winning record — the Reds falling into a first-place tie with their next opponent, the Chicago Cubs. It might be early in the season. But this road trip is an early litmus test for a Reds team that entered the weekend with only four series against National League opponents this season — only one against a division opponent.

(They’re 13-5 against the American League). “Something that we’ve talked about a lot is just believing it, believing in what we’re doing,” said Stephenson, the most tenured player on the roster. “Some (of that is) getting a taste of the playoffs last year.