Everything You Need to Know From Reds' Opening Series Win Over Red Sox

CINCINNATI -- Last year, the Reds made the postseason by winning just 83 games. They never lost more than four straight, and they never won more than five straight. It felt like the whole season they were figuring out who they were.

Through three games this season, it feels like the Reds are already much further along. They found a way to win on both Saturday and Sunday against the Boston Red Sox, bouncing back from a 3-0 loss on Opening Day to win the series. The two games they won in the opening series may very well have been games they found ways not to win in 2025. That's why this team, even just through 1/54 of the season, feels further along.

Reds Find Ways To Take Opening Series Against A Good Red Sox Team

Cincinnati Reds pitcher Emilio Pagán (15) and pitcher Andrew Abbot celebrate a win after the ninth inning of the MLB Interleague game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Red Sox at Great American Ball Park in downtown Cincinnati on Sunday, March 29, 2026. The game was scoreless after three innings. The Reds won 3-2 to take the season-opening series from the Red Sox. | Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

If there were two things the Reds struggled with in 2025, they were consistently winning one-run games and extra-inning games. The Reds were 22-22 in one-run games last year and 3-12 in extra-inning games.

This weekend against Boston, they won 6-5 in 11 innings on Saturday and won 3-2 on Sunday on a sixth-inning three-run home run by Eugenio Suarez. So, in the first series of the season, the Reds already have a win in extra innings and two wins by one run. They found ways to win two games that could have gone either way, especially considering the Red Sox rallied back to tie Saturday's game in the ninth inning and took a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning on Sunday.

Speaking of Eugenio Suarez, you have to feel really happy for him. He struggled a little bit through the first two games of the series, but he broke out with a bang in the sixth inning on Sunday with what proved to be the game-winning three-run homer. That's why the Reds spent money to acquire him in the offseason. They knew his right-handed power would play heavily into their favor at Great American Ball Park. It did on Sunday.

If you saw his postgame interview with Jim Day on Reds.TV, you could see just how happy he is to be back in Cincinnati. He's a different player now, with more confidence and experience. That could be huge for this club as they look to take another step forward on the ladder of contention this season.

Cincinnati Reds second baseman Matt McLain (9) throws to first for an out in the first inning between the Cincinnati Reds and Boston Red Sox at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati on Saturday, March 28, 2026. | Albert Cesare/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

After struggling for much of the 2025 season, Matt McLain made headlines in Spring Training when he was mashing the ball all over the yard. Clearly, it's carried over to the start of the season. After an 0-3 performance on Opening Day, McLain responded with a 3-4 day on Saturday that also saw him walk twice. On Sunday, McLain went 1-3 with a walk. He's delivering good at-bats by working the count and waiting for good pitches to hit. Already through three games this season, you can tell McLain is much more confident at the plate and more sure of himself.

Sal Stewart. The kid just keeps mashing the ball for extra bases. He had another double on Sunday, adding to an impressive opening series that saw him get three hits on Opening Day and homer on Saturday.

What's most impressive about Stewart is that he doesn't look overwhelmed at all. In fact, he looks like he expects to be doing what he's doing. That's a confident ball player the Reds can pen into the clean-up role hopefully for most, if not all, of the 162 games this season.

In the second and third games of the series, the Reds' bullpen combined to pitch 11 innings and allow just two runs and seven hits. That's how teams consistently win one-run games and extra-inning games. Their bullpens clamp down and get outs. They may bend, but they don't break.

That's what the Reds' bullpen did against the Red Sox. Thirty-three outs. Sure, guys like Tony Santillan and Emilio Pagan bent a little at times in their two appearances. But they didn't break. Santillan pitched himself into trouble on Sunday in the eighth inning, but a pickoff at first helped him escape the jam with no runs allowed. Pagan incurred two runners on in the ninth on Sunday, but he got Trevor Story to fly out for the save.

The best part about Santillan and Pagan is that you know both of them are going to find their footing as the season unfolds.

Rhett Lowder was terrific on Sunday. That was his first start since 2024, and he more than held his own. That's a tough Red Sox lineup he faced, and Lowder held them to two runs on just three hits.

I think it was easy to overlook the Red Sox coming into this first series of the season. They may not have the likes of David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, but this is a really good, young lineup that got Boston to the postseason in 2025.

Reds pitching held them to just 10 runs in three games, with Andrew Abbott setting the tone with a shutout over six innings on Opening Day. The Reds' bullpen had to work extra on Saturday, but they responded. Connor Phillips pitched two scoreless innings on Saturday in the 10th and 11th innings. Brock Burke, Pierce Johnson, Tony Santillan, and Emilio Pagan helped cover four scoreless innings on Sunday to seal the series victory. No Greene and no Lodolo. Through the first series, no problem.

My favorite stat of the weekend: Zero errors across all three games by the Reds. That's crucial. Sure, Dane Myers and Will Benson may have missed out on some tough catches in the outfield, but the Reds made the easy plays on defense throughout the series. That's another way to win one-run games and games in extra innings: playing good defense. The Reds did that in all three games against the Red Sox.

Again, this was only the first series. But it feels a whole heck of a lot better to win the first series than the alternative. Winning sets the tone. And as Paul Brown once said, Winning makes believers in us all.