ST. LOUIS -- The 2014 season began evaporating for the Cincinnati Reds the first week after the All-Star break. Three straight losses against the Yankees, three more against the Brewers, another to Washington … a flurry of failure from which they have never recovered.

So here they are playing out the twilight of the summer game, and for some, there are already thoughts about what will be different next year. Bryan Price, the manager of the Reds, sat in the cinder-block office assigned to the visiting manager Sunday in St. Louis and recited his team's record: 71 wins, 84 losses. "That team," he said, "is not a 71-84 team."

Not with Aroldis Chapman at closer, finishing out a season in which he has 97 strikeouts in 50 innings, with one homer allowed.