The Cincinnati Reds swept the Texas Rangers in their first road series of the 2026 regular season, and their road exploits didn’t stop on Monday in their 2-0 series opening win against the Miami Marlins. Lefty Brandon Williamson, making just his second start since late 2024, bounced back from a rough first outing of the season and was simply brilliant, and the Reds offense did just enough to bring home another win.
Williamson kept the Marlins completely off the board in 6.2 IP, his mix of a cutter
and slider keeping Miami hitters completely off-balance throughout. He was efficient, needing just 93 pitches, and yielded just 3 hits and a lone walk against 4 strikeouts as he picked up the win. Brock Burke, Tony Santillan, and closer Emilio Pagan similarly were efficient in their ability to shut down the Marlins for the win, as the team needed just 127 pitches in total to win their fourth straight game.
Right now, the Cincinnati Reds are undefeated as the road team this year. Undefeated!
Williamson, tonight’s Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game, only truly faced one bout of trouble, that coming after Miami catcher Agustin Ramirez tripled off the top of the wall in RF – a triple that was a foot away from being a game-tying homer. Cincinnati’s lefty pitched out of that jam in short order, however, and that’s as close as the Marlins got.
The Reds took all the lead they’d need in the Top of the 4th when Elly De La Cruz smashed a hustle double into the RF gap and scored a batter later when Sal Stewart smashed an RBI-single up the middle. They got an insurance run in the Top of the 8th, though, when catcher Tyler Stephenson smashed his second homer of the young season over the LF when Miami starter Janson Junk hung a breaking ball in the heart of the zone.
Reds 2, Marlins 0 – and Cincinnati moves to a 7-3 record on the season.
Other Notes
- TJ Friedl shrugged off his rough start to the season by smashing a single up the middle to lead off the game. He later added a bunt single to go 2 for 4 on the evening (and he didn’t strike out once after having fanned 11 times already entering the game).
- Stewart stole his second bag of the game, doing so in front of tons of friends and family in his hometown. He also got thrown out on at TOOTBLAN at 3B a few pitches later, but we’ll let that one slide.
- Will Benson got the start in RF again in lieu of Noelvi Marte and had another laser of a hit.
- Dane Myers, in his first game against his former club, came on as a defensive replacement late (at the expense of Spencer Steer). He walked in his lone PA.
- The Reds and Marlins will recommence their series on Tuesday at 6:40 PM ET, and they’ll do so with Andrew Abbott and Sandy Alcantara sharing the mound.
