Another day, another team clinches against Reds as Dodgers win NL West

It’s clinch season for the Cincinnati Reds. Not in a 2025 way. Not in a good way.

Not even in a way that figures to end any time soon.

It’s a byproduct of the kind of season that bottoms out in May with the toughest stretch of games packed into a September gauntlet of contenders.

So when the Dodgers rolled the Reds in the finale of this week’s four-game series at Great American Ball Park, it marked the third time in seven games an opponent had clinched a postseason position against the Reds – second time this week.

Three days after they clinched a playoff berth and celebrated with a low-key toast, the Dodgers beat the Reds 8-2, to win the series and wrap up their 13th National League West title in 14 years and shower Cincinnati’s visiting clubhouse with champagne and beer.

That came less than a week after the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Reds in Milwaukee for their postseason clincher.

And what’s left of the season doesn’t get any less clinchy from here.

The Reds have at least an outside shot of seeing three more teams clinch in their final three series, with the Cubs seeking a wild-card clincher this weekend, the Braves’ NL East clincher potentially aligning with the Reds series in Atlanta next week, and if the Toronto Blue Jays keep pace with the AL wild-card frontrunners between now and the time the Reds get to Canada … well, you get the idea.

Not that Reds manager Terry Francona pays a lot of attention to wrong-way clinchers, even on his home field.

“I always leave and come in here (to the clubhouse),” said the manager who was in the middle of the bubbly-soaked, cigar-smoking celebration when the Reds clinched a wild-card berth in Milwaukee on the final day of last season. “Whether good, bad or in between, that’s their business. … Everybody’s different.”

Whatever all these clinchers – possibly six in the last 16 games – mean for all these playoff-bound teams, for the Reds its a pungent reminder of how far they’ve fallen since their own 26-man rave in the visiting clubhouse in Milwaukee.

And how much ground they have to make up, how much work the front office has to do this winter, to get back to throwing their own parties this time of year.

For now, this team that hasn’t won a playoff series in 31 years goes back to that drawing board having lost six of seven this season – all in an 11-day span – to the two-time defending champs.

They got outscored 41-15 along the way by a Dodgers team that had Shohei Ohtani for only the first game of that stretch before going on the injured list (knee) and that watched two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell exit after the first inning in the only game in that stretch they won (because of groin tightness).

Underscoring the L.A. story, the Reds have lost 11 of 13 overall to the Dodgers dating back to July 30 last season, a stretch that includes a two-game playoff sweep at Dodger Stadium.

The lone highlight in this week’s series finale didn’t even include Dodger foil Elly De La Cruz (who had homered in five of the first six meetings). 

Rookie of the Year favorite Sal Stewart assured the Reds wouldn’t be shut out for the second time in the series when he hit his first home run since August in the fourth inning. That snapped a drought of 64 plate appearances without a homer for the young slugger who now has 32 home runs and 109 RBIs.

The Reds dropped back to their season low-water mark of 11 games under .500 (71-81) as they await the Cubs’ arrival for the final home series of the weekend.

The last time they were 12 games under .500 they weren’t even trying to win. It was the end of that 100-loss 2022 season.

And, oh, by the way, the Reds did pull off their own dubious clincher in that final game against the Dodgers:

For the ninth time in 13 years, they’ll finish with a losing record.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Another day, another team clinches against Reds as Dodgers win NL West