Realtime Sports

The Cincinnati Reds look to build on a stretch of solid play as they visit an Atlanta Braves team that is struggling to stay out of last place in the NL East in the first of a two-game series starting at 7 PM ET.

The Cincinnati Reds (23-16, 9-7 away) are the hottest team in the majors right now with nine wins in their last ten games and, with the St Louis Cardinals struggling, the Reds now occupy top spot in the NL Central.

The Reds’ recent success comes from playing well on all sides of the ball. They have just one error in their last 13 games. They are batting .313 as a team in their last 12. The pitchers have a combined 2.20 ERA in their last ten.

Last night against the Milwaukee Brewers, the Reds needed a two-run home run from Scott Rolen to tie the game in the ninth. Later that inning, Joey Votto drove in the game-winning run off of a single to finish the dramatic comeback. The Reds have won 10 of their 23 wins at the final at bat.

The Atlanta Braves (19-20, 11-6 home) beat the New York Mets 3-2 to pull past the Mets and out of the division cellar. The badly needed win came in an ugly fashion. They failed trying to advance runners on two sacrifice bunt attempts instead needing a throwing error by the Mets’ David Wright to get the game-winning run.

The Braves seem to be slowly pulling out of their disappointing season winning 11 of 17. Their offense has been coming in spurts. They followed up a 34 runs in four straight wins stretch with just five runs in their two-game series with the Mets.

The Braves send Kanshin Kawakami (0-6, 5.79 ERA) to the mound looking for his first win of the season. His lone career start versus the Reds doesn’t inspire much confidence either as he surrendered eight runs in 4 2/3 innings.

The Reds pitcher isn’t much better. Aaron Harang (2-5, 6.02 ERA) has been having an inconsistent season getting torched in some of this games while looking solid in others. In three career starts versus the Braves he is 1-0 with a 1.72 ERA.