Whether you believe in jinx or not, there is no doubt that the Reds appeared to be cursed when it comes to playing on the West Coast. Even back when they played in the NL West, how many times have we've seen a trip to the Left Coast cost this team. It's still early in the season, but after cruising through last week's homestand with two series sweeps over first place team, the Marlins and Indians, Dusty Baker's bunch once again finds themselves in the NL Central cellar, seven games behind the Cubs with a record of 21-26.

Much has been made this week of the team's struggles out west, particularly in Los Angeles, where the team has not won a game since July 28, 2005.  Nine straight losses to the Dodgers in L.A.  To put that into perspective, the has changed owners once, general managers twice and managers three times. Only eight of the current 25 players on the roster were around when Cincinnati last departed the ballpark winners.

However, it's not just Los Angeles where the team struggles, in fact they are only 9-22 on the West Coast since 2006. Who can forget the 2-9 mark they turned up on the critical late August road trip in '06, when the Reds were very much still in the race?

Maybe there is just too much being made out of all of this though as closer look reveals the team pretty much has struggled everywhere that is not Great Amercian Ballpark. Keeping in mind that the team has had a winning season in seven years it's staggering to see the difference between their home and road performance since the opening of GABP in 2003.

Year - Home | Away
2003 - 35-46 | 34-47
2004 - 40-41 | 36-45
2005 - 42-39 | 31-50
2006 - 42-39 | 38-43
2007 - 39-42 | 33-48

The team entered their current road trip having lost 18 of their last 19 road trips since 2006. The only winning trip in that span was Aug. 14-19, 2007. Barring a sweep of the Padres that number will soon be 19 of 20 losing road trips. The team is already sporting a 7-18 away record in ‘08 and if they can reverse that trend will be looking at an eighth straight losing season.