The Reds ended a three-game losing streak with a seven-run ninth against the Giants on Wednesday. Hopefully they left all of that in San Francisco.
Also, the Reds have lost 13 of their last 20 so maybe this is a good time for the Cubs to face them.
For more on the Reds, here’s Wick Terrell, manager of our SB Nation Reds site Red Reporter.
Oh, the Cincinnati Reds. The Cincinnati Reds!
Here we are again in late August with the most recent news regarding the Reds being which high-priced veterans they’ve
both a) placed on waivers and b) had passed over on waivers. Such is life when the team is once again mired in last place and going absolutely nowhere.
I do suppose that news takes the sting off the news of them losing Hunter Greene to a second Tommy John surgery, one that will likely knock him out for the entirety of the 2027 season after he effectively missed all the important parts of the 2026 after elbow surgery, too.
The simple fact is that this is a roster that saw the front office tinker at the margins over the winter when it really needed a thorough turbocharge, and then we all realized nobody had even bothered to change the oil for the last three years. Then came the injuries — at one point to their ace, their top three relievers, their superutility piece, and their big offseason signee at the same time — and there’s just not nearly enough depth in this threadbare farm system to absorb that.
The Reds, right now, are Chase Burns — who’ll be shut down in another start or two — paired with Elly De La Cruz, Sal Stewart, and not much else. Think anybody aside from the team’s unmovable front office believes that’s good enough to win anything? They rank dead last in team batting average, on-base percentage, and wRC+. Only the lowly Savannah Bananas Colorado Rockies have fewer fWAR from their position players than the Reds, and even that’s by just 0.3. Pete Crow-Armstrong (8.6 fWAR) has been worth more than the entire non-pitching portion of the Reds (8.3). Heck, he’s been worth more than their entire pitching staff (8.5 fWAR), too!
The only question remaining for the Reds, now, is just how much house cleaning gets done between now and 2027. Will Terry Francona want to stick around for that? Will Nick Krall, whom the owners adore and let run the draft, get two more promotions within the front office? Given that the Reds have the toughest remaining schedule of any MLB club and are already languishing as one of the worst records in the sport, it’s just about time someone put the final nail in their coffin, and a weekend series against a good Cubs team just might do it.
I just might even hope for it, frankly.
Fun facts
This series will be the Reds’ last visit to Wrigley Field this season. The teams will play three more games at Cincinnati on Sept. 18-20, the next-to-last weekend of the schedule.
The Cubs have played all their games, home and road, vs. the Cardinals. They have seven left with the Brewers, starting with four at home on Monday. They have three to go vs. the Pirates, at home Sept. 11-13.
The Cubs were 3-4 at home vs. the Reds in 2023, then 3-3 the last two seasons. But they swept four games in May, extending a winning streak to nine games. The first three were walk-offs: 5-4, 3-2 and 7-6, with the second and third in 10 innings. They won the finale, 8-3. Then the Cubs bounced back from a 4-0 first-game loss at Cincinnati on July 10 to take the series with wins by 5-3 and 8-4, making their record 6-1 vs. the Reds for the season.
The teams have played 2,436 games since the rivalry began in 1890, when the Reds jumped to the National League from the American Association. The Cubs have played more games only vs. the Pirates (2,631) and Cardinals (2,37). The Cubs have won 24 more games than they have lost vs. the Reds, 1,219-1,195, with 22 ties. At home, the Cubs have notched 112 more wins, 664-552.
(Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
Probable pitching matchups
Friday: David Peterson, LHP (4-1, 3.93 ERA, 1.311 WHIP, 4.24 FIP in 10 games with Cubs; 7-7, 5.17 ERA, 1.504 WHIP, 4.01 FIP in 26 games overall) vs. Rhett Lowder, RHP (5-8, 5.13 ERA, 1.467 WHIP, 4.67 FIP)
Saturday: Kevin Gausman, RHP (2-1, 4.30 ERA, 1.130 WHIP, 3.52 FIP in four starts with Cubs; 7-11, 4.37 ERA, 1.264 WHIP, 3.50 FIP in 27 starts overall) vs. Andrew Abbott, LHP (6-9, 4.15 ERA, 1.404 WHIP, 4.53 FIP)
Sunday: Shōta Imanaga, LHP (8-9, 3.78 ERA, 1.122 WHIP, 4.61 FIP) vs. Chase Burns, RHP (14-3, 2.77 ERA, 1.153 WHIP, 3.11 FIP)
Times & TV channels
Friday: 1:20 p.m. CT, Marquee Sports Network
Saturday: 1:20 p.m. CT, Marquee Sports Network
Sunday: 6:20 p.m. CT, NBC (full national broadcast, no blackouts), also streaming on Peacock. Announcers: Jason Benetti, Anthony Rizzo and Jeff Brantley.
Prediction
As noted above, the Reds are on a skid. The Cubs definitely need to get their offense rolling again and win some games at home. They pretty much need to take two of three to get back on track. So that’s what I’ll pick.
Up next
The Cubs host the Milwaukee Brewers in a four-game series at Wrigley Field beginning Monday evening.
