Dead red: Phillies vs. Reds series preview

This has not been Joey Votto’s finest seasonWe were warned that the Phillies were due to face a gauntlet of excellent starting pitching last week. They had to go against Cy Young Award winners Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer, a potential future Cy Young winner in Sandy Alcantara, and two other good starters in Chris Bassitt and Edward Cabrera. Oh, and they’d have to do without Bryce Harper and (for the last three games at least) Kyle Schwarber.

Unsurprisingly, the Phillies did not score a lot of runs over the past few days.

The good news - in addition to the good news that for the most part their own starting pitching has been almost as good - is that they’ll now face the Cincinnati Reds.…