Looking for their first win of the year, Cincinnati sent Brady Singer up for his first start of the year. Opposing him for the Boston is old friend Sonny Gray in his first start of the year as well. Both pitchers struggled, with neither pitching into the 5th. The Reds jumped out to leads of 3-0, 4-1, and 5-3 but Boston clawed back in to tie it 5-5 in the 9th. It took 11 innings, but Dane Myers’ first hit as a Red in the bottom of the 11th drove Matt McLain in to give the Reds their first win of 2026, as the Reds beat the Red Sox 6-5!
Things I loved to see:
- The heart of the lineup got going after a tough game one
Matt McLain tore the cover off the ball in spring training, and continued mashing the ball in this one going 3 for 4 with an RBI double and 2 walks. After going 3 for 4 in Thursday’s game, Sal Stewart just keeps hitting. He opened up the scoring in the bottom of the 1st with a rocket to right to make it 1-0. Then, leading off the bottom of the 3rd, he hit the Reds’ first HR of the year to CF to increase the lead to 4-1. And Elly De La Cruz got his first HR of the year, blasting a ball into RF to give the Reds a 5-3 lead.
- The bullpen was mostly good after a short start from Brady Singer
7 innings, 3 hits, 3 BBs, 10 Ks and 2 runs for a revamped bullpen to pickup Singer after an abbreviated start. All 6 guys that came in did well enough, while giving Reds fans a slight heart attack in the process. Graham Ashcraft walked Jarren Duran, had a wld pitch that gave Duran 2nd, then gave up an RBI double to Wilyer Abreu to make it a 5-4 game. Tony Santillan put two men on in the top of the 8th before Terry Francona brought in Emilio Pagan for a 4 out save. Pagan got Trevor Story swinging to end the 8th, but then with 2 outs in the top of the 9th, Abreu hit a HR to RF to tie the game 5-5.
Conner Phillips, pitching with the free runner at 2nd to start the 10th, struck out the first 2 batters and got out of the inning to give the Reds a chance to win it in extras. They didn’t of course, but Phillips worked another scoreless inning in the 11th and got the first win of the season after Myers’ walkoff hit.
- The ABS system doing exactly what it was meant to do
The home plate umpire for the game today, CB Bucknor, had lets just say a tough game. He had many very questionable calls, nad it would have been really bad if not for ABS being implemented this year. In his final AB of the game, Eugenio Suarez had two balls called strikes that were reversed on back to back pitches and 3 in the AB total. On the day the Reds were 5 for 5 on ABS challenges while Boston went 1 for 3 and were out of challenges in the 3rd inning. Early on this year, ABS has been a great improvement and even if hurts the Reds in key situations I’m glad we finally have a way to keep these umpires accountable.
My final thoughts:
It always sucks when your starter only goes 4 innings, but if you get the win you’ll take it everytime. The bullpen did enough, Titos substitutions and pitching changes worked for the most part, and we got offense from the heart of the lineup.
We need more from TJ Friedl, 1 for 6 with 4 strikeouts from your leadoff man isn’t gonna cut it. And I, along with many other Reds fans, are already done with Jose Trevino and Ke’Bryan Hayes’ hitting. They both bring value on defense but going a combined 0 for 9 just kills all momentum at the bottom of the order.
Win: Conner Phillips (1-0 6.75 ERA)
Loss: Justin Slaten (0-1 6.75 ERA)
Tomorrows probables
Connelly Early for Boston
Rhett Lowder for Cincinnati
