Many a Cincinnati Reds season has seen the club hold its own, keep its head above water, and even position itself to be one of the premier clubs in the National League Central…only for the team to head west to face their old National League West rivals and see their season implode in short order. For the first time in 2026, that’s what’s on the plate for the Reds to start this week as the club is in San Diego to face the Padres in Petco.
You can make a pretty compelling argument that this Reds season
is already imploding, or even has already imploded. The Reds are just 2-8 over their most recent 10 game stretch, just got swept by a St. Louis Cardinals club that’s a) supposed to be ‘rebuilding’ and b) is now 5 games ahead of them in the standings, and Elly De La Cruz is on the shelf with a hamstring injury for the foreseeable future. The team’s starting pitching outside of Chase Burns is a mess, their bullpen is a ragtag bunch of ball-throwers, and the swag and confidence this team displayed in April hasn’t shown through in the dugout in ages.
I’m not even sure the last time I saw Geno Suarez smile. That’s alarming!
The one thing Cincinnati might have going for it is that the Padres might be the one team in a bigger funk than them at the moment. The Friars are just 4-13 over their last 17 games, the offensive woes that have plagued them all season finally catching up to them after their brilliant 31-20 start to the season. In many ways, they’re going through a very similar season to the Reds in that they roared out of the gate with wins in unsustainable ways and the flaws that were papered-over during that span have begun to bite them more often than not.
I doubt there’s a player in their locker room right now that views this upcoming series against Cincinnati as anything other than a get-right series, though.
Monday’s series opener will feature Andrew Abbott on the mound for the Reds, who’ll hope he can continue to round back into good form and provide their bullpen with some relief with an outing deep into the night. Walker Buehler, meanwhile, will start for San Diego, and he’ll throw the game’s first pitch at 9:40 PM ET.
Put on a pot of coffee and stay up for some Late Night Reds the next three days!
