“Silence is so freaking loud.” — Author Sarah Dessen

If silence is so freaking loud, then the bats of the Cincinnati Reds are shouting at ear-splitting levels.

As the Reds embark on their postseason mission tonight in San Francisco, their bats are locked in silent mode. Their run-scoring is barely a trickle.

September was Team Slump. They averaged 3.2 runs per game, worst in baseball, worse than all the last-place teams. Worse than the Boston Red Sox. Worse than the Colorado Rockies. Worse than the Miami Marlins. Even worse than the Houston Astros.

In 27 games they scored three or fewer runs 15 times. They never scored more than six and scored six only twice. In their last eight games they scored 1, 2, 1, 1, 4, 2, 3 and 0.

And this is a team that believes it can make it to the World Series? This is a team that believes it can beat the San Francisco Giants, a team with the fifth-best pitching staff in the National League and a team that plays in a park with one of the biggest outfield expanses in baseball?

Doesn’t sound good, does it?

But this isn’t new. This is a team that has treated baseball bats like fly swatters all year, a team that couldn’t buy hits with runners in scoring position if it bribed the pitcher.

And yet it won 95 games, tying Washington for the most wins in baseball. How was that possible? With pitching — the fifth best starting staff and the best bullpen, with earned-run averages as the measuring stick. And the Reds did it with defense, the second best in the National League.

That, obviously, is how it will have to be done when 19-game winner Johnny Cueto starts it off tonight against 16-game winner Matt Cain in AT&T Park.

“Pitching and defense are the most important things in the postseason,” Reds manager Dusty Baker said. “That’s because low-scoring and close games dominate postseason play. And we’ve had a lot of practice in low-scoring, close games.”

The Reds played 53 one-run games, nearly one-third of their total, and won 32.

And that’s why Drew Stubbs will be in center field instead of Chris Heisey or Xavier Paul — to chase down balls in the deep, shadowy gaps in AT&T. And it’s why Scott Rolen will be at third base and not Todd Frazier.

There are many who believe Frazier should be at third base to add punch to the feeble offense, but Frazier disappeared in September, going 13 for 72 (.181) with one homer and three RBIs.

It certainly doesn’t help the Reds that they have to play the first two games in San Francisco. It is imperative that they win at least one. If they come home 0-and-2, they need to win three straight in Great American Ball Park, a daunting thought against the Giants.

They’ll get the pitching and they’ll get the defense, but Joey Votto, Jay Bruce, Brandon Phillips, Ryan Ludwick and Scott Rolen need to use their bats for more than shoulder decoration. They need to provide Cueto and Bronson Arroyo and Mat Latos and Homer Bailey (if it goes five games) some wiggle room so that one misplaced pitch won’t mean defeat.

They’ve done it all year, found ways to win, especially late in close games. They’ll need that in this series or their 2010 first-round sweep at the hands of the Phillies could become an instant replay.