SPORTSRx presents: Meltdown of the Week Award

Every Thursday, SportsRx will pick a weekly event in sports that can be considered a true meltdown. Why Thursday? Cause that works for us!

The first weekly SportsRx Meltdown Award goes to.......The Cincinnati Reds for watching their playoff hopes flush down the toilet faster than....., well we'll leave it at that. This was a tough call for us because we have many friends who are die-hard Reds fans (sorry guys).

We could have given this to Yankee Third Baseman Alex Rodriguez, for his 2-20 with 14 K's on the recent west coast roadtrip but he's seen enough torture from the Yankee Fans, so we will go easy on him. Besides his .275-26-94 numbers don't lie and the Yanks are still a cool 8 games up on the Red Sox.

The Reds have lost 6 straight games on their west coast trip, three in a row to both the Giants and the Dodgers. They are now 4 1/2 games behind the Cardinals the NL Central and 1 1/2 games out of the playoffs all together. They head to San Diego on Friday to try and gain back the lead of the NL Wild Card and stop the bleeding.

To make things worse for the Reds, on Wednesday they acquired Jason Johnson, who's stellar performances this season with both the Indians and the Red Sox, have landed him on his third team this season, and fourth in two season. They signed him to a minor-league contract, but really wanted him for their playoff roster they said. "He's got a good arm, good stuff," Wayne Krivsky, Reds GM said. "He's a veteran guy. He adds to our depth, our inventory." (Cincinnati Enquirer). Playoff roster? The guy is 3-12 with stellar e.r.a. of 6.35! Unfortunately, if they think Johnson is a playoff type guy they want in their rotation or bullpen, even if they do make the playoffs it will be a quick exit for them this year.

The next three games in San Diego could pretty much make or break the Reds in 2006. One good note for the Reds, they have the night off.