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Reds, Rays clash in matchup of teams riding strong starts
The Cincinnati Reds and Tampa Bay Rays will open a three-game set Monday night in St. Petersburg, Fla., and look to keep moving forward with their early winning ways.
The National League Central’s first-place club, Cincinnati will start the second half of a six-game road swing.
The first portion of it ended Sunday as the Reds swept the Minnesota Twins 7-4 with a rally in 10 innings, scoring six times in the final two frames to stay perfect on the trip.
“I just like the life and the enthusiasm and the competitiveness,” Reds skipper Terry Francona said after Saturday’s 5-4 win from a two-run deficit, perhaps a prelude to Sunday’s comeback. “I love the will to keep playing.”
Cincinnati’s Monday starter Rhett Lowder (2-1, 3.52 ERA) will try to rediscover the success he had over the first two starts instead of the most recent pair.
In outings against the Boston Red Sox and Texas Rangers at the season’s beginning, the right-hander allowed two runs on six hits in 11 innings, earning the win over Texas with six scoreless frames.
Francona finds the former Wake Forest hurler a throwback: A battler who tops out at 94 mph and uses his command to work the ball around the plate to keep hitters guessing.
“In an era where you kind of grip it and rip it, he can go to different quadrants and he doesn’t have to throw 95, 96,” said Francona. “Even (behind in the count), he doesn’t have to come in with a fastball. He can throw something that changes eye levels. He can spin it down low, below their barrel.”
However, Lowder is 1-1 with a 5.25 ERA in recent starts against the Miami Marlins and San Francisco Giants.
The right-hander will make his first career start against the Rays, who return home following a successful week of winning four of six at the Chicago White Sox and Pittsburgh Pirates.
On Sunday in Pittsburgh, the Rays lost the three-game series as starter Shane McClanahan made what he and manager Kevin Cash said was the left-hander’s best start of 2026 in a 6-3 setback.
Yet, the strangest game in the 4-2 week occurred Saturday in the Steel City in a matchup whose first pitch was at 3:34 p.m. and whose final offering occurred well after 10 p.m. following a 2 1/2-hour rain delay — more than 6 1/2 hours after it started.
The delay was most crucial.
Behind NL Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes, Pittsburgh built a 4-0 lead, but the lengthy stoppage took the 23-year-old superstar out of the game. The Rays rallied to a 8-6 lead in the top of the 13th, then sent out Yoendrys Gomez to protect a two-run lead.
“(The key was) probably Skenes coming out of the game, if we’re going to be honest,” Cash said. “But I mean, you’ve got to take opportunities when you get them.”
Previously announced as unavailable after throwing 44 pitches the night before, Gomez entered and allowed an RBI single and stolen base to Pirates rookie sensation Konnor Griffin, but whiffed Joey Bart with Griffin on second representing the potential winning run.
Said winning pitcher Griffin Jax: “It’s just the type of win that can carry a team deep into the season.”
The Rays did not announce a starter for Monday, but right-hander Jesse Scholtens (1-0, 0.00) made the start Wednesday in Chicago after McClanahan.
–Field Level Media
