On The Horizon: Cubs vs. Reds series preview

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The Cubs make their first 2026 visit to Great American Ballpark, just as we’re about to hit the All-Star break. They’ll return down the stretch, in mid-September.

For more on the Reds, here’s Wick Terrell, manager of our SB Nation Reds site Red Reporter.

The Cincinnati Reds are a mess. Stop me if you’ve heard that before!

Mired in last place in the NL Central once again, the Reds have somehow managed to not just be bad, but to collapse in the most hilarious manner imaginable. For instance, despite 3B Ke’Bryan Hayes, 2B Matt McLain, and OF TJ Friedl having been perhaps the single most woeful trio offensively to begin the year, the Reds managed to pile up wins in one-run games and surge as many as nine games over .500 by the end of April. All that came without Hunter Greene, who missed most all of the first half of the season after elbow surgery!

As things got so bleak with Hayes and Friedl, in particular, we saw an IL stint come for their 3B and an outright demotion for Friedl, who at one point recently was one of the better leadoff men in baseball. And the moment those two got demoted, the team simply became incapable of winning anything!

Old heads will point to the fact that the entire back of the bullpen (Emilio Pagan, Tony Santillan, and Graham Ashcraft) as well as Eugenio Suarez and Elly De La Cruz getting hurt at the same time may have helped derail the season. Twitter reply folks would beg to differ, however.

Either way, the Reds are flirting with being double-digit games under .500 after owning the single worst record in the game through May and June, and are heading into the All-Star break destined to be sellers once again. That is, of course, barring a miracle series against the Cubs at home to wrap the season’s first half, in which case they’ll probably try to maintain status quo until the absolute last seeing as they simply have no initiative in either direction ever.

Fun facts​

The Cubs and Reds have played 2,433 games since the Reds joined the National League in 1890. In all those years, the Cubs have won exactly 23 more games than the Reds, 1,217 to 1,194, with 22 ties.

The difference was only 19 games before the Cubs swept four games at Wrigley Field on May 4-7.

In their final trip to Cincinnati last season, on Sept. 18-21, the Cubs lost four straight, the first and last both by 1-0. They had won two of three at Great American Ball Park earlier in the year.

The Cubs’ last sweep at Cincinnati was three games June 27-29, 2016. They have played 24 series there since then, including four in which they won the first two games and lost the third.

(Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)

Probable pitching matchups​

Friday: Shōta Imanaga, LHP (5-7 , 4.28 ERA, 1.097 WHIP, 4.67 FIP) vs. Hunter Greene, RHP (0-1, 21.60 ERA, 3.300 WHIP, 6.42 FIP)

Saturday: Javier Assad, RHP (6-1, 4.15 ERA, 1.101 WHIP, 5.11 FIP) vs. Nick Lodolo, LHP (3-2, 4.68 ERA, 1.457 WHIP, 5.04 FIP)

Sunday: Matthew Boyd, LHP (4-1, 4.31 ERA, 1.311 WHIP, 3.27 FIP) vs. Andrew Abbott, LHP (5-5, 3.92 ERA, 1.406 WHIP, 4.91 FIP)

Times & TV channels​

Friday: 6:10 p.m. CT, Marquee Sports Network

Saturday: 6:10 p.m. CT, Marquee Sports Network

Sunday: 12:40 p.m. CT, Marquee Sports Network

Prediction​

Lots of lefty starters in this series! The Cubs have improved their record vs. LH starters, as it now stands a game over .500 at 12-11, even while their OPS vs. LHB compared to vs. RHB is now about equal.

Cubs pitching has been pretty good lately so I’ll say two of three.

Up next​

The All-Star break! Pete Crow-Armstrong will go to Philadelphia as the Cubs’ sole representative for Tuesday’s All-Star Game. The Cubs will resume the 2026 regular season Friday evening at Wrigley Field when they begin a three-game series against the Minnesota Twins.

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