Guardians at Reds, Game 1: Preview and Thread

The Redlegs, fresh off a split with the champs to begin the season, come home to Cincinnati for Reds Opening Day. They weren’t able to open the season at home this year due to the protracted lockout, but the festivities kick off today as they welcome their cross state “rivals”, the freshly renamed Cleveland Guardians.

The Guardians come in from Kansas City from a split with the Royals. They scored a total of one run through the first two, then put up a total of 27 runs in the final two to earn the split. They roughed up Kris Bubic and Jackson Kowar for 12 of those runs on Sunday, two names that I promise are real people. They put up a 10 spot across eight different Royals pitchers yesterday. We’ll hope (and expect) the likes of Tyler Mahle to put up a bit more of a fight.

Off to a hot start to begin the season is Guardians rookie Steve Kwam, who is 9-13 on the young year, with two doubles and five walks. He went 5-5 in Sunday’s game. Also, the steady and great as always Jose Ramirez comes into Cincinnati with a .688 SLG and a 222 OPS+.

For the Reds, Tyler Mahle got the ball against the team that hasn’t changed their racist and crappy name yet for Opening Day, and blanked them over five innings, allowing three hits and striking out seven. Theoretically, this lineup of Cleveland’s should pose even less of a challenge than Atlanta’s, but, of course, that’s why they play the games.

Reds lineup

Guardians lineup