Reds pitcher Hunter Greene discusses his MLB playoff debut, Wild Card loss to Dodgers
Reds pitcher Hunter Greene talks about his MLB playoff debut, Wild Card loss to Dodgers
LOS ANGELES – When the bright lights of the postseason came on, it sent all the cockroaches scurrying back into their hiding places.
The next time the lights go out, it might be for good on the Cincinnati Reds’ season.
The you-can’t-kill-’em underdogs from Cincinnati walked into a big trap known as Dodger Stadium on Monday night, when the Reds’ allegedly playoff-caliber pitching let them down in a 10-5 loss to the high-rolling Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 of the wildcard series.
“Never” count out the Reds, third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes cautioned in a solemn clubhouse after the Reds’ first postseason game since 2020. Standing at the next locker, first baseman Spencer Steer said: “Our backs are against the wall. It seems like that’s when we play our best. We’re going to show some fight.”
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Go ahead and write off the Reds for the umpteenth time this season. It’s a safe bet this time. The Reds no longer have the New York Mets to bail them out.
Cincinnati faces elimination on Wednesday night in majestic Dodger Stadium, where the Reds have lost 7 of their last 8 games since 2024. Dodgers pitchers have struck out the Reds an eye-popping 54 times in four games at Chavez Ravine this season. And Wednesday’s scheduled starting pitcher for Los Angeles, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, allowed one run and fanned nine in seven innings in his one start against the Reds this season, a Dodgers victory at Great American Ball Park in late July.
Underdogs are always scary in short postseason series, especially when they have frontline pitching like the Reds do. But the Reds needed to win Game 1, with Opening Day starter and Southern California youth baseball legend Hunter Greene on the mound and in a ballpark where they’ve struggled mightily the last few years.
Greene let them down, lasting only three innings in the biggest game of his career. What a major letdown for a pitcher the Reds have promoted for years as being critical to postseason success.
The Reds certainly didn’t play like the pesky team who were affectionately deemed the “cockroaches” a few weeks ago by radio analyst Jeff Brantley. At least through the first six innings, when the Reds mustered all of one hit, allowed five home runs and found themselves in an 8-0 hole.
Frankly, the economic disparity in baseball seemed on full display at that point. The Reds played like the small-market team that has barely one-third the player payroll of the star-studded Dodgers roster.
No doubt Reds fans back home felt the gut-punch four pitches into the Dodgers’ first at-bat, when Shohei Ohtani whacked a 375-foot laser over the wall in right field. The most energized stadium in baseball immediately went from its constant buzz to a deafening roar.
Reds second baseman Matt McLain, another Southern California native, ripped a double down the third-base line in third inning for Cincinnati’s first hit. In fact, it was the Reds’ first hit off Dodgers left-hander Blake Snell in over two years.
A small group of Reds fans sitting in the middle deck behind home plate sustained their ovation for over a minute after McLain’s hit. Then thousands of Dodgers fans drowned out those cheers for the visiting team with a “let’s go Dodgers” chant.
It was symbolic of what was happening on the field. The reigning World Series champions pounded Greene in the bottom of the third, when the Dodgers took a 5-0 lead on homers by Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman.
It had to be demoralizing for those long-suffering Reds fans watching back home. The Reds had battled and come back from the dead so many times in the past month to make the playoffs. Yeah, they had a lot of help from the Mets. But the Reds made it, giving fans something to root for amid three decades of playoff futility for the Reds and a miserable Bengals season unfolding.
The Reds were dousing themselves with champagne on Sunday. It was fun to watch those lovable cockroaches celebrate. Three days later, they face it being abruptly finished. It was fun while it lasted.
Contact columnist Jason Williams at jwilliams@enquirer.com