CINCINNATI -- Only 10 members of the 2020 Reds roster have previously appeared in the postseason. As the shortened regular season moves into its final week, even those without playoff experience understand the importance of staying in the moment and not giving games away.\n\nSunday’s 7-3 Reds victory over the American League Central-leading White Sox at Great American Ball Park took care of some much-needed business with wins in two out of three games in the series. All that’s left are six games -- three that are very critical against their National League Central-rival Brewers at home, followed by three more vs. the playoff-bound Twins in Minneapolis.\n\n• Box score\n\n“This is a playoff team, obviously, that we just played,” said
Cincinnati (27-27) rebounded well from Saturday’s 5-0 loss and has won seven of its last eight games and eight of the last 10. The club remained one game behind second-place St. Louis (26-24) for the second automatic playoff spot in the NL Central. Cincinnati is tied with Milwaukee (26-26) for the second spot in the NL Wild Card race, but it leads the season-series tiebreaker, 4-3.\n\nThat’s another reason the next series is so pivotal.\n\n“I thought this was probably the most important series of the year, and we performed really well,” Reds first baseman
Sunday’s win was hardly glamorous, as Chicago starter Dylan Cease and the pitchers who followed him allowed 11 walks. Every Reds batter but
Lorenzen was pulled with two outs in the fourth inning and did not qualify for the victory.