Cincinnati Reds vs Chicago Cubs – June 6th, 2024

Cincinnati Reds vs Chicago Cubs – June 6th, 2024 – The Cincinnati Reds are hot. Very hot. Winners of 9 of their last 12, the Reds come into this series just 4 games under .500. None of us would have believed that a few weeks ago. Since losing the last series to the Reds, the Cubs took a two game set from the White Sox. The Reds optioned Graham Ashcraft today in favor of Emilio Pagan. Not sure if this is just temporary to buy some time since he just had a start or more indicative of how they feel about him at the moment – only time will tell. Let’s break down how the Cincinnati Reds and Chicago Cubs will matchup tonight at Great American Ballpark.

Cincinnati Reds RHP Hunter Greene

Greene had been figuring it out until his last outing against the Cubs in which he gave up 5 runs, but still managed to go 6 innings. Greene’s advanced stats are phenomenal. The main area for improvement is BB % which sits at 10.4% putting him in the 22nd percentile. Most promising is his xERA sitting at just 2.88, good for the 86th percentile. The xERA being so much lower than his actual ERA shows that he’s throwing great stuff, but a decent amount of batted balls just fall the wrong way. His previous two starts before last time out were against the Dodgers – holding them to two runs and then one in those starts. Look for him to return to that form tonight.

Cincinnati Reds Lineup Card

Like I mentioned in last night’s game recap, the Reds are batting .281 with 16 homers since May 24th. Pretty much everyone is hot or at least back to average. India is .429 over his last seven and .318 over his last fifteen – really starting to put it together at the plate. Steer is .379 in his last seven and .315 over his last fifteen – almost as good as he started the year. Perhaps most importantly, Elly De La Cruz is starting to heat back up. Hopefully his homer on Tuesday was just what he needed. His exit velo is noticeably up. Also, Stephenson catching Hunter Greene is interesting – it’s well documented that Greene prefers to pitch to Maile.

Chicago Cubs RHP Javier Assad

Assad faced these Cincinnati Reds last time out giving up 2 runs over 5 1/3 innings. He’s a young, phenomenal pitcher that just does a little bit of everything. His fastball is by far his best pitch and he throw it right at guys. He won’t dance around because he doesn’t have great secondary pitches – or at least anything with movement. His advanced stats show a guy thats just middle of the road at everything which, with no real weakness, can mean success in the bigs.

Chicago Cubs Lineup Card