The 2024 Cincinnati Reds still can’t hit, but aren’t dead yet

The Cincinnati Reds eked out a 4-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday, salvaging a game out of an already lost series and finally doing some heavy lifting on their abysmal (and NL-worst) 10-21 record in 1-run games. The win keeps them out of the basement in the National League Central, for now, as they sit a half-game ahead of the Pittsburgh Pirates in that duo’s annual battle for cellar supremacy within the division.

FanGraphs now pegs the Reds with a 2.0% chance of making the playoffs, a Dumb and Dumber quote the only thing between them and simply playing out the string. FanGraphs also shows the Reds with the second-worst hard-hit rate in all of Major League Baseball, something…