As implausible as it seemed, Cincy saw its' faint hopes slightly revived. The Reds were still taking in oxygen.

But to be honest, this reporter wasn't buying into this minor resurgence. It had all the earmarks of fool's gold. It felt like nothing more than just another tease.

For when it comes to the 2006 Reds, you can count on them coming apart whenever they manage to move into a challenging position.

Once they get a whiff of being in contention, sure as shootin' they'll retreat. It's a given that they'll give ground the minute it seems as if they might be for real. They've become highly accomplished at going backwards when the stakes are highest.

So when Cincy snuck to within 2.5 games of struggling St. Louis, you just figured that some sort of lapse was imminent. Another fade job was right around the corner.

And sure enough, the Reds stumbled their way through a 7-2 loss to Florida that all but pulled the plug on their season.

Offered one last chance to stand up and demonstrate some grit, they meekly surrendered during a game in which Jerry Narron's club stranded an astounding 15 runners.  

In what has become a recurring theme over the past two months, Cincy was incapable of producing the big hit. The clutch two-out knock just hasn't been part of their repertoire.

But realistically, even if the Reds had been more tenacious under pressure and had been endowed with a bit more gumption and fight, it's still rather questionable whether they could have advanced to the postseason.

And the reason is as plain as a called third strike.

The talent that the Reds were forced to put on the field simply wasn't up to the task.

Primarily because of injury as well as other contributing factors, Cincy has been reduced to relying on players who hardly qualify as frontliners.

On more than a few occasions down the stretch, the Reds were compelled to go to battle with what amounted to a glorified Triple-A lineup.

It was like bringing a knife to a gunfight. Or being asked to defend yourself with one hand tied behind your back.

Too often, the Reds were at a decided disadvantage with the personnel they had to use. They were hamstrung and handicapped.

Sometimes you just stared in amazement at the names that Narron threw out there and you knew before the first pitch had even been thrown, another loss was a foregone conclusion.

At times, the Reds were darn near unrecognizable.

Although there's no disrespect intended, when position players like Norris Hopper, Chris Denorfia, Todd Hollandsworth, Brendan Harris, DeWayne Wise, Ray Olmedo and Brandon Watson are thrust into playing prominent roles, your prospects are bleak.

Couple that with having to depend on hurlers such as Chris Michalak, Jason Johnson and Ryan Franklin and your situation becomes even more problematic.

Now, that's not to say that some of the aforementioned can't develop into productive major-leaguers. But at present, almost all of them are unproven and unknown commodities. Banking on players with such limited experience is at best a crapshoot. At worst, it's a no-win proposition.

It's no coincidence that the hitting woes that have plagued the Reds were at their most acute when many of the newcomers were logging heavy duty.

Collectively, they just didn't perform with any semblance of consistency. They were more detriment than asset.

So it came as no shock that when the newbies contributed little, Cincy started circling the drain. With so many holes in their lineup, the Reds were exposed as nothing but a pretender.

Minus sufficient firepower, the Reds rapidly flamed out. Their once admirable attack had deteriorated into a shell of its former self. The recently added parts just never meshed. The Red Machine grinded to a screeching halt.

And not even their mini-streak of late can hide the sad truth. As presently constructed, the Reds just don't have the goods. Their talent simply doesn't measure up.

Plenty of new blood is going to be needed to get the Reds back on track.

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear as if much of that new blood will come from the current roster.