For the baseball lifers who were lucky enough to witness the greatness that was the Big Red Machine during the 1970s, there’s not a team on the Cincinnati Reds schedule that draws a scowl like that of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The two clubs were heaped into the same National League West when Major League Baseball underwent a massive realignment in 1969, precise timing that coincided with the rise of the Reds dynasty. Those Dodgers clubs were nothing to scoff at, either – thrice they lost in the World
Series in the 1970s before finally breaking through to win it in 1981, the likes of Ron Cey, Dusty Baker, Steve Garvey, and Hall of Famer Don Sutton forming the backbone of those clubs.
The two clubs were the best in the National League for much of that time, fierce division rivals who left it all on the field each and every time they played each other. That included the disastrous decision in 1981 to leave the Reds out of the playoffs altogether despite them owning the best overall record in baseball as the lockout had moved the format to two separate halves, neither of which the Reds technically ‘lead.’
(As I mentioned, the Dodgers won the World Series that year, a year in which the Reds were literally the best team in baseball and missed the postseason.)
The youngest few generations of Reds/Dodgers fans don’t have those same connotations. The Reds were shipped off to the NL Central in 1994 as MLB expanded once again, and the two clubs haven’t occupied the same division since. On top of that, the Dodgers have emerged as Evil Empire West, spending money on superstars and playing in the limelight year after year after year as the Reds struggle to get out of their own way most of the time.
That’s a little bit different in 2025, however.
The Reds sit 5 games over the .500 mark as they open Monday’s series in Dodger Stadium, while a second-half slide by LA has them tied with San Diego Padres atop the NL West standings. Both clubs have eyes on postseason dreams this year, yet neither is in a comfortable enough position to take this series lightly. Cincinnati sits 1.5 games back of the New York Mets for the final NL Wild Card spot, and does so as the Mets head into an equally spot-lit series against their fierce rivals in Philadelphia this week.
It’s the way late-August baseball should be for these storied franchises, and it’s finally back on that stage.
First pitch on Monday in Dodger Stadium will be chucked by Emmett Sheehan of Los Angeles, while Cincinnati will send their ace – and southern California native – Hunter Greene to the mound. First pitch is set for 10:10 PM ET and will be carried on MLB Network as well as the FanDuel Sports Network, so find your way to a TV for some #LateNightReds again this evening.
Maybe, just maybe, this is the start of another era of the Reds/Dodgers rivalry.
