After what felt like a long spring training, the regular season is about to begin. At 4:10pm ET the Cincinnati Reds will host the San Francisco Giants at Great American Ball Park. With new manager Terry Francona at the helm, the Reds will be looking to begin their season in the right way.
Starting Lineups
Here are the lineups for Opening Day:
San Francisco Giants |
Cincinnati Reds
|
| LaMonte Wade Jr. – 1B | TJ Friedl – CF |
| Willy Adames – SS | Matt McLain – 2B |
| Jung Hoo Lee – CF | Elly De La Cruz – SS |
| Matt Chapman – 3B | Gavin Lux – LF |
| Heliot Ramos – LF | Jeimer Candelario – 3B |
| Patrick Bailey – C | Spencer Steer – DH |
| Wilmer Flores – DH | Christian Encarnacion-Strand – 1B |
| Mike Yastrzemski – RF | Jake Fraley – RF |
| Tyler Fitzgerald – 2B | Jose Trevino – C |
| Logan Webb – RHP | Hunter Greene – RHP |
Starting Pitchers
Stats are from 2024.
| Pitcher | IP | ERA | WHIP | BB% | K% |
| Hunter Greene | 150.1 | 2.75 | 1.02 | 9.3% | 27.7% |
| Logan Webb | 204.2 | 3.47 | 1.23 | 5.9% | 20.5% |
| Links: Hunter Greene’s Stats | Logan Webb’s Stats |
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Hunter Greene
Coming off of a breakout and All-Star season, Hunter Greene will be making his second opening day start in his career. The righty was dominant against both lefties and righties last season, but he did pitch a little better against left-handed hitters where he held them to a lower average, lower slugging percentage, and struck out significantly more of them.
Pitching home games at Great American Ball Park isn’t an easy task. Everyone knows that and the stats show that Greene wasn’t as good at home as he was on the road. His home ERA was still good, coming in at 3.38, but it was a far cry from the 2.05 he posted on the road where hitters also had just a .505 OPS against him (.647 at home).
2024 Splits
| Split | PA | H | 2B | 3B | HR | BB% | K% | AVG | OBP | SLG |
| RHH | 311 | 52 | 9 | 2 | 6 | 8.7% | 24.1% | .191 | .281 | .304 |
| LHH | 300 | 44 | 10 | 1 | 6 | 10.0% | 31.3% | .174 | .285 | .293 |
Pitch Usage
| 4-Seam | Curve | Slider | Split | |
| Velo | 97.8 | 80.5 | 86.9 | 87.1 |
| Usage | 55% | 1% | 35% | 8% |
Logan Webb
San Francisco plays in a very pitcher friendly ballpark. And the splits last year for Logan Webb showed that. His ERA at home was 2.83, but on the road it was 4.11. His OPS against on the road was also 116 points higher than it was when pitching at home. Left-handed hitters performed better against him last season and most of that came down to the fact that they walked far more often. When it came to what righties and lefties did on contact against him things were nearly identical.
This spring Webb threw his cutter far more often than he ever has before. Perhaps it’s a small sample size thing here, but he threw it just 3% of the time in the 2024 season but 20% of the time this spring. That’s a big difference, and it mostly came at the expense of the change up usage.
2024 Splits
| Split | PA | H | 2B | 3B | HR | BB% | K% | AVG | OBP | SLG |
| RHH | 408 | 98 | 14 | 0 | 8 | 3.4% | 18.4% | .253 | .280 | .351 |
| LHH | 433 | 104 | 21 | 4 | 3 | 8.3% | 22.4% | .263 | .323 | .360 |
Pitch Usage
| 4-SM | 2-SM | Cutter | Slider | Change | |
| Velo | 92.8 | 92.8 | 91.1 | 84.0 | 87.7 |
| Usage | 5% | 40% | 3% | 21% | 31% |
When and Where
- Game time: 4:10pm ET
- Where: Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati
- Watch: FanDuel Sports Network Ohio, MLB.tv, Fox 19.1 (Cincinnati area)
- Listen: 700 WLW AM (Cincinnati area)
- Forecast: 61°, partly cloudy, 5% chance of rain
News and Notes
Stuart Fairchild DFA’d
The Reds made it official today, designating outfielder Stuart Fairchild for assignment after he failed to make the Opening Day roster.
Redleg Nation’s Predictions
Yesterday some of the crew here at Redleg Nation put down some predictions about what we see for the 2025 season. If you missed that, check it out here.
The National Media Predictions
Earlier today in our Opening Day preview we included a bunch of predictions from the national media. The good news is that some of them felt the Reds would win the division. The bad news is that a lot more of them didn’t think that way.
Around the Beat
Mike Petraglia noted that both Andrew Abbott and 5th starter Carson Spiers remain in Arizona where they continue to pitch.
Andrew Abbott and Carson Spiers in Arizona, getting their throwing in. “Only way we could line it up so they could get their work in.” Spiers is set to start the season as the fifth starter.
— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) March 27, 2025
Opening Day is different in Cincinnati
What’s iconic about Cincinnati? This. #RedsOpeningDay pic.twitter.com/Ej3DHStVKZ
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) March 27, 2025
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