Cincinnati Reds look to salvage season against a Brewers club that’s owned them

A new series to build momentum? We’ll see!

Playing the Milwaukee Brewers in any park has proved to be the foil for the Cincinnati Reds in recent seasons. Milwaukee, frankly, has owned the Reds, and doing so has been a major reason why they’ve sat atop the National League Central division more often than not in that time.

Cincinnati limps back to Great American Ball Park for their next sojourn of 2025, and does so with a 29-31 record that belies their season-long run differential but actually tells a pretty accurate tale of this year to date. Cincinnati, when good, looks really good, but they look downright miserable more often than not. And now they get a 32-28 Milwaukee club that has finally found its groove in 2025, a club that’s ripped off 7 consecutive victories (and is 8-2 in their last 10 games) as they pursue the very same Chicago Cubs club that made mincemeat of the Reds twice in the last week.

This isn’t your same-old Brewers club, mind you. Gone are Corbin Burnes and Willy Adames to free agent pastures elsewhere, the two having combined to torture Cincinnati over the years in their own particular ways. Gone, too, is manager Craig Counsell, who’s manning the Chicago ship that steamrolled the Reds already. Still, they’ve got a pitching generator that turns coal into diamond, a former MVP in Christian Yelich anchoring their lineup, and the precise kind of team-wide moxy that just seems to find ways to beat the Reds - who have been searching for that similar moxy for years now.

Yelich, for the record, exited his game yesterday with a hand contusion after being hit by a pitch, so it remains to be seen just how ‘active’ he’ll be in this particular series in GABP. Still, the Brewers club has ample outfield depth should he be forced to miss any time, their 3.1 combined fWAR from their outfielders the 8th best among MLB clubs (and their 37 steals the 2nd most).

It’s not time to smash the panic button with a sledgehammer in Cincinnati just yet, but it’s probably time to give it a little rub to at least know what it feels like.

Whether it’s a lineup shakeup, positional realignment, or minor roster overhaul, it just feels like what the Reds have continued to roll out on the regular this season simply hasn’t been able to generate any multi-day momentum. Maybe that should mean moving Elly De La Cruz to leadoff and putting the red-hot TJ Friedl in the vital #2 spot in the order in front of Tyler Stephenson, wherever he plays that day. Maybe they bring back the Viking helmet (even though both Joey Votto and Jonathan India are long gone), or simply ask Terry Francona to do pushups each time the club strikes out.

I don’t know. What I do know, though, as that this club is desperately searching for something to click on a regular basis, and they’re searching for it as Milwaukee comes to town to begin a murderer’s row of opponents on the schedule for the entirety of the next month.

It’s make or break time in Cincinnati, with first pitch set for 7:10 PM ET Monday night.

Pitching Matchups

Monday, June 2nd (7:10 PM ET): RHP Brady Singer vs. RHP Aaron Civale

Tuesday, June 3rd (7:10 PM ET): RHP Hunter Greene vs. RHP Freddy Peralta

Wednesday, June 4th (12:40 PM ET): LHP Andrew Abbott vs. RHP Quinn Priester

How to Watch

Monday’s series opener will be broadcast nationally on FS1, so check your local cable provider to see which channel it’s on.

The following two games of the series will be broadcast on FanDuel Sports Network. You can watch FDSN in-market through cable packages, though it’s also available to be streamed in-market with no blackout restrictions even without a cable subscription. You can check the link in the above sidebar (which I’ve re-linked right here) for more information on how you can do just that.

Per usual, you can view these games from outside the Reds TV market by catching the FDSN stream through MLB.tv.