Emilio Pagán isn’t talking like a reliever guarding a fading season. He’s talking like a guy who still sees a path.
That’s a pretty notable stance for a Reds team that has spent most of the year fighting uphill. Cincinnati has won four of its last five and nine of its last 13, and it sits five games back in the National League Wild Card race. After Tuesday’s win over the Athletics, the club improved to 54-58, even if FanGraphs still gives it only a 2.2% shot at reaching the postseason.
Pagán has helped keep the door cracked open. Since coming off the injured list in July, he has been sharp in the closer’s role, posting a 1.74 ERA while striking out nearly 14 batters per nine innings. In 10 1/3 innings, he has allowed just two runs and picked up six of his 12 saves in that stretch.
After the win, Pagán didn’t shy away from the bigger picture.
"We are here to win games," Pagán told Jim Day. "We are behind the 8-ball and that is on us.
We've got a lot of baseball left. We have winnable games coming up.
With our starting rotation, HG, Chase, Lodolo coming back, Singer, Abbott, we've got a rotation that can pitch us into the playoffs. That is something we talked about today in our meeting.
"If those guys keep putting up zeros and give our offense a chance, we are going to be in a good spot. We like giving the ball to those guys each five days and we like where we are at."
That kind of tone has become part of Pagán’s presence in Cincinnati. Across three seasons with the club, he has often sounded like one of the voices pushing the group forward, and that belief has been especially visible during this stretch.
The challenge, though, is obvious. The Reds are staring at a brutal September schedule, and if they’re going to turn this into a real race, they’ll probably need just about everything to break right from here on out.
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