As awful as the Cincinnati Reds have been for most of the month, they have found a way to tease us again. Following a stretch of four wins in 18 outings and dropping to 20-30, the club has accomplished the unexpected by winning its last four in a row.

Despite the mini-hot streak, the Reds still reside in the NL Central cellar, 7.5 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers. That’s the bad news, but the good news is that there is ample time to climb out of last place and make a significant move. The team has played a brutal schedule up to this point, and they’re finally playing teams within their own division, which gives them a prime opportunity to make some hay.

After sweeping the high-dollar Los Angeles Dodgers over the past weekend, spirits have been lifted in Reds Country, and the streak continued on Monday afternoon with a 3-1 win over divisional foe St. Louis. Reds fans always relish victories over the team often referred to as the “Dirty Birds” and any wins against NL Central teams are especially important.

Following the three-game series against the Cardinals, the Reds stay in the division with a three-game set at Wrigley Field vs. the Cubbies, before heading to Coors Field to play the Rockies three times. Following the road trip, the club returns home for a huge four-game series against Chicago.

What has led to the recent surge?

The ingredients of any successful club include timely hitting, solid defense, and excellent pitching. The Redlegs have gotten all three in the past few days. Whether or not they’re able to maintain that winning formula over a long stretch remains to be seen.

Can this team as it’s currently constructed make a run?

It’s certainly a distinct possibility, but the Reds are still a team that has little for margin for error. For them to make a run, the key will be getting a consistently strong effort from the pitching staff. The Reds

have the best starting staff in the division, and the bullpen has been lights out in recent games, but we all know that can change in a hurry.

A tweak here and there may be coming soon to the Reds roster, and getting healthy and staying that way over the next 108 games will also be critical for this team to contend. At the risk of sounding cliché, it is a long season, and there’s still a lot of baseball to be played.

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MLB SURPRISES (BOTH GOOD AND BAD) – Memorial Day is obviously an important holiday for us to reflect and remember, but it’s also traditionally a date on the calendar for taking a peek at how the Major League Baseball season is shaping up after the first couple of months.

As we’ve already noted, the Brewers are sitting atop the NL Central and they’ve increased their lead over the suddenly slumping Chicago Cubs to 4.5 games, which means the Reds are just three games behind their neighbors in the Windy City. The Cardinals won five in a row before the Reds tripped them up on Memorial Day, and they’re 5.5 games back. The up-and-down Pittsburgh Pirates are a game behind the Redbirds, with Reds a game behind the Bucs.

The 31-22 Brewers have been the biggest surprise team in the division, but it’s debatable whether they can keep it going after winning just five of their last 10.

The Philadelphia Phillies have the best record in the National League, which comes as no surprise. The 38-17 Phils lead the Atlanta Braves by six games, with the Nationals, Mets and Marlins looking out of the race already. The Braves received some terrible news over the weekend, when superstar right fielder Ronald Acuna Jr. suffered a season-ending ACL injury. Atlanta had already lost star pitcher Spencer Strider for the remainder of the season, and the team has been slumping recently. Says here the Phillies continue to run away with the NL East.

In the NL West, the Dodgers’ lead has slipped a bit with their recent dry spell. The Angelenos lead both the surging San Francisco Giants and the always dangerous San Diego Padres by five games. The disappointing Arizona Diamondbacks are seven games back, while the struggling

Rockies continue to struggle in Denver. In the long run, it appears to be the Dodgers’ division to lose, with the Padres providing the primary threat to a NL West title.

Over in the American League, the team with the best record to this point is the New York Yankees. The main challenger to the Bronx Bombers remains the young Baltimore Orioles, who are just a game and a half behind the 37-18 Yanks. The Red Sox have been a pleasant surprise, but they’re still 9.5 games behind New York. A pair of extremely disappointing teams (Toronto and Tampa Bay) are battling to stay out the AL East basement and could be sellers before the trade deadline.

The AL Central features a pair of surprising teams battling for the lead, with the Cleveland Guardians sitting two and a half games in front of the Kansas City Royals. The favorite among most observers before the season, the Minnesota Twins, are 6.5 games behind Cleveland, with Detroit (9.5 games back) and the woeful White Sox rounding out the division. Things have really gone south for the 15-40 Southsiders, who possess the worst record in MLB.

The AL West promises to be one of the most interesting to watch in baseball, with the Seattle Mariners currently in front of the defending champion Texas Rangers by three and a half games, who are now just a game ahead of the Houston Astros. The Mariners appear to be legit, and this could be the year they make a run to the World Series. You can never count out the Rangers, and the Astros have steadily been digging out of an early hole.

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BAT CATS HOSTING REGIONAL – The Kentucky baseball team begins what the team is anticipating as a deep run in the NCAA tournament on Friday afternoon.

The 40-14 Bat Cats were named the No. 2 overall seed for the tournament and will host the Lexington Regional at Kentucky Proud Park. UK meets 32-21 Western Michigan at noon in the opener, which will be televised on the SEC Network. Illinois (34-19), the Big 10 regular

season champions, and 42-13 Indiana State, the champs of the Missouri Valley Conference, square off at 7 p.m. in the other Lexington Regional game.

The top 16 seeds in the 64-team field are selected to host regionals, which is a double-elimination format. The winners of each regional advance to the super regionals to play a best of 3 series, beginning next Friday.

If Kentucky wins the regional, they would also get to host a super regional, where they would be matched up against the winner of the Corvallis Regional. The top seed in that regional is 42-14 Oregon State, and the Beavers will be joined by UC Irvine, Nicholls and Tulane.

Selection of the eight super regional hosts will be announced next Tuesday, and the Men’s College World Series begins play Friday, June 14, at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha.

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NORSE FACING TOP OVERALL SEED — Northern Kentucky will be playing in their first NCAA Division I baseball tourney, but the committee did them no favors.

The Norse, winners of the Horizon League after a 23-5 rout of Wright State in the title game, will take a 35-22 record into their game against Tennessee. The game will be shown on the SEC Network at 7 p.m.

The Volunteers earned the top seed in the tournament after winning the SEC tournament and posting a remarkable 50-11 record this season.

Other teams in the Knoxville Regional include Southern Mississippi (41-18) and 32-24-1 Indiana.

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SEE Y’ALL NEXT WEDNESDAY – The ol’ guy has to undergo a surgical procedure tomorrow morning, so there will be no Saturday column forthcoming from yours truly. I expect everything to go smoothly, and the columns will resume in the Wed., June 5 edition.

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“We made too many wrong mistakes.” – Yogi Berra

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“A use has been found for everything except snoring.” — Mark Twain