Hunter Greene made his 2026 spring training debut and he did not have the best go of it in his first inning of work. The offense took care of things later on in the game, though, as they battled back from an early deficit to complete a come-from-behind win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday afternoon out in Arizona.
The Highlights
Cincinnati got things out to a nice start when Matt McLain hit a sinker 394 feet into the crowd in the top of the 1st inning to put the Reds up 1-0.
In the bottom of the inning things went about as poorly as they could for Hunter Greene. Making his first start of the spring, Greene’s inning went like this: Triple on a misplayed ball in center, a wild pitch that brought in a run, and then four straight singles. That resulted in three runs on five hits, 22 pitches, and no outs recorded. Another run would be charged to his record when reliever Julian Garcia entered the game and gave up two more hits.
Since it’s spring training, though, and nothing really matters, Hunter Greene was allowed to return to the mound to begin the 2nd inning for the Reds. He would walk the first batter of the inning but then get a force out on a grounder and then a double play ball to end the inning and his day.
Two innings later we saw Cincinnati’s offense put together a big rally against two Brewers relievers. Matt McLain started the inning with a single and then moved to third on a double by Elly De La Cruz. Spencer Steer drew a 1-out walk to load the bases for Blake Dunn and he promptly unloaded them with a double to tie the game up. Dunn would then come around to score later in the inning on an RBI single from Dane Myers that put the Reds up 5-4.
They didn’t remain in the lead for very long. Milwaukee got to Lyon Richardson in the bottom of the 5th. They would get the first two batters on base before a 2-out double by Blake Perkins brought in the game-tying run. Richardson would strand two runners to keep the game tied up at the end of five.
Cincinnati grabbed the lead back in the top of the 6th inning thanks to the new rules implemented this year. Sal Stewart singled to lead off the inning and Blake Dunn was hit by a pitch and then pinch run for. That led to Dane Myers coming to the plate with two men on and two outs. He would be called out on strikes, but he challenged the call and he was correct, giving him another chance and he took advantage of it as he doubled in two runs. He would then come in to score when Will Banfield followed with an RBI double of his own that made it 8-5.
A ground-rule double in the bottom of the 6th was followed up by back-to-back groundouts for the Brewers, but both of them moved Luis Lara up a base in the process and he would score to get one of those runs back for Milwaukee.
Michael Chavis got that run back for Cincinnati in the top of the 7th. He would hit a solo home run with two outs to extend the lead for the Reds to 9-6. The Brewers got a run back in the bottom of the 8th on a long home run by Andrew Fischer, but that’s all they could manage as Cincinnati kept the lead. Davis Daniel made sure it was their final run, too, as he worked a scoreless 9th inning to seal the win.
You can see the box score for this game here.
News and Notes
Elly De La Cruz had his first hit of the spring as a right-handed hitter when he doubled in the 4th inning. He’s now 1-3 against lefties this spring. He’s also 5-9 against righties. All of his hits are extra-base hits and he’s hitting .500/.500/1.250 in his four games played.
Matt McLain is 6-12 with a walk and a strikeout in his first 13 plate appearances of the spring.
Blake Dunn’s had a nice couple of days. He homered on Friday. In this game he doubled and drove in three runs while also throwing out a baserunner at the plate.
The Reds used nine pitchers in the game. Hunter Greene was the only one who didn’t record a strikeout. As a whole the pitching staff had 12 strikeouts and three walks, but also gave up 17 hits. None of the nine had a perfect inning in the game.
The Reds are on the road again on Sunday as they head over to Hohokam Stadium to take on the Athletics. Expected to pitch for Cincinnati in this game: Andrew Abbott, Emilio Pagan, Tony Santillan, Brock Burke, Graham Ashcraft, Connor Phillips, Tejay Antone, Zach Maxwell, and Luis Mey.
Hunter Greene really pitched lousy today! Trade him now while he still has some value!
Ok, let’s not be silly. It’s his first appearance, and it is, after all, just Spring Training. I did not follow the game, so I have no idea if his velocity was off, or just had bad location, or was pitching from behind. Because, it is just Spring Training. Hunter has proven himself in the regular season.
A lot of other guys pitched today, some good, some bad.
Other guys batted today. McLain had a good day.
Will Banfield is batting .429 for the Spring. Will he be on the Reds opening day roster….likely not. His career hitting says otherwise.
Another step in the Spring Training pre-season.
After reading folks being serious the last week I fully expected to read your first sentence this evening.
Greene’s velocity looked good….silver lining.
I liked that MMC’s HR was to right center.
It is MML…
If I were Greene, my two objectives would be to finish the game healthy and show the Brewers nothing. I’m surprised the Reds and Brewers face each other four times in ST.
Greene “struggles early” is the understatement of the year! Not worried about his first outing! If it was his last ST start, I would be worried! Go back, review the film and be better next outing!
Reds pitching with 3 walks versus 12 strikeouts! Gotta like that!
Going into spring training I felt 6 players had a roster spot locked up assuming health an no injury.
Tyler Stephenson, Alex Trevino, Spencer Steer, EDLC, Hayes and Friedl.
Three players were not locks in my mind but had a step up on others.
Matt McLain may have locked his spot up already. He looks a lot more like the McLain of 2023 than the McLain of 2025.
The Combination of Sal Stewart’s good start and Nate Lowe slow start give Stewart a second step up on Lowe.
Marte is in the same place he started Spring training.
What excites me is that the remaing 4 spots look like they may be won and not taken because their poor performance was better than someone elses poor performance.
Bleday – Do we have the Bleday of 2024 back?
Myers – Defense with a bat that is on fire
Dunn – The last two games have been fantastic.
Callihan – Seems to be fully recovered.
Chavis – Has looked good thus far.
Benson – Has looked good in limited AB.
Hinds – Number’s look good
Still only February, but I like how things are developing vs. how they usually develop. There is no Santiago Espinal, Nick Martini, Mike Ford or Gavin Lux defaulting into playing time this year.
I could see an infield of: Steer, Stewart, Calihan, McLain, EDLC, Suarez and Hayes
I could see an outfield with four of these six: Friedl, Marte, Bleday, Myers, Dunn and Benson.
At least 2 of these 13 players will not be on the opening day roster. You also have Chavis, Lowe and Toglia fighting for a spot.
no injury in the first sentence was meant to be health and no trade
I particularly like that the team is healthy and the roster spots may not need to be awarded on the basis of injury.
I thought McLain had his spot locked up before spring began, but I’m still not confident he can keep it long term. We”ll see how his bat plays when the season begins. He’s still one of my favorites, but he needs to produce.
I want Bleday to be the only backup OF, but if we do go with 5 OF, maybe Dunn? I really don’t have a favorite for the 5th OF. I don’t want Hinds riding the pine, so either Dunn or Myers.
Louisville may be pretty good this year.
IF: CES, Lowe, Toglia, Chavis, Arroyo
OF: Hector Rodriguez, Dunn, Hinds
SP: Lowder, Aguiar, Petty, Franco, Williamson, Acuna
RP: Mey, Maxwell, Kuncl, Darren McClaughan, Yunier Marte, Will Cannon and Sam Moll.
I know Lowe and 3 RP are out of options but it will be interesting
Lowe doesn’t need to be optioned he is on a minor league contract but probably has an opt out clause.
I’d still guess Lowe makes the team
Louisville
C – Banfield / Higgins / Trautwein
1B – CES / Toglia
2B – Callihan / Chavis / Hampson
SS – Arroyo / Chavis / Hampson
3B – Urbaez / CES
OF – 1 of Benson or Bleday / Rodriguez / Dunn / Hinds / Ivan Johnson
DH – either 1 of the OF above / CES / or Toglia
Real fun lineup for the AAA level
I don’t believe they signed Lowe in hopes of stashing him in AAA.
Seriously, I don’t.
You’d think that Lowe insisted an opt-out clause if he didn’t make the roster, to find another organization.
Yeah, Lowe had a dozen choices with teams. He chose the Reds for a reason.
Richardson RP too
Cannon pitched just a partial season in High A. Doubt he starts at Louisville though he might get there later in the season. I would expect Simon Miller to be there though.
Maybe Hagen Danner will go to Louisville and Cannon will pitch more games in Double-A
A win over the Brewers always is nice even in the spring training…
A really good pitching roster for tomorrow against A’s…Pagán and Tiger Tony will debut in this ST…
Would Brady Singer be the only pitcher yet to play after tomorrow game?
Picking up where he left off in LA during the playoffs
Wonder why Singer has yet to pitch?
Don’t have an answer for ya but he is scheduled to pitch Monday.
Nice to see Steele Hall’s debut today.
There are several players that are in Reds camp that it’s now or never for them CES,Benson,Hinds,Bleday,.The theory is that once they’re in a big league camp for a third straight season without making an impact on any roster in the MLB there are going to be some major red flags raised on their futures.
Not surprising but…
https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/now-know-why-kyle-schwarber-160437038.html
It was a good day overall … that’s enough for a Saturday in February where baseball and good burgers were involved.
Streamed the game on mlb but had the option to listen to WSAI so got to here Brantley, and he postulated that Milwaukee has possibly picked up on something and that GReene is tipping his pitches, just his guess but it sure looked like it in the first inning.
Greene was probably yelling in at the hitters, telling them what was coming.