Reds 5, Guardians 4: Cleveland Falls Short in Opener

Guardians comeback not enough as they drop the Reds opener.

Well.

Quite the game. Bibee was a bit shaky today, but managed to grit through 6 very long innings (105 pitches). He made some very poor pitches as his command looked shaky at the beginning of his outing. But, silver lining, after that nightmare 2nd inning, he went 4 innings of 1-run ball, which is all you can ask for after a 4-run 2nd inning.

Before I talk about the offense, it’s important to note that because Bibee finished the 6th inning, Vogt only had to use one reliever today — that reliever being Matt Festa. Festa, for what it’s worth, gave the bullpen 2 scoreless innings. Impressive.

Carlos Santana continues to heat up as he started the Guardians’ scoring with a 2-RBI single to center. In the next inning, Bo Naylor homered to right-center in the 5th.

Jose, then, destroyed this pitch in the 8th.

Fan-favorite reliever Emilio Pagan came in to pitch the 9th against our Guardians (career 8+ ERA vs. Cleveland). It looked like history was going to repeat itself when Carlos Santana smoked a fastball to right field as the leadoff man in the 9th, but that ball unfortunately died on the track amidst an incoming storm front’s wind blowing in, and the Guardians went 1-2-3 to end the game.

The Guardians look to take the next two this weekend. Also, we will finally see Slade Cecconi make his major league debut tomorrow night (via @tim_stebbins on X).