Watch: Elly De La Cruz volunteers 1 day before Reds’ Opening Day
Ahead of Opening Day on Thursday, Cincinnati Reds star Elly De La Cruz visited the Freestore Foodbank with Pure Life to promote healthy hydration.
It’s finally baseball season in Cincinnati, and Opening Day celebrations are off and running across the region. Soon, it’ll be time for the first pitch between the Cincinnati Reds and the visiting San Fransisco Giants.
Get caught up on the day’s festivities and the game itself right here, and refresh this page for live updates from throughout the game.
Jeimer Candelario, a relatively unheralded player this spring, is 2-for-2 with three RBI so far, and the Reds are leading, 3-0, through three innings.
Candelario has 10 mostly-pedestrian hits in Cactus League play. His .268 batting average didn’t “wow,” but he has sure showed up on the biggest day of the baseball calendar in Southwest Ohio.
Candelario’s first hit in the first inning plated Elly De La Cruz, and he drove in two more runs in the third inning with a bases-loaded single.
Elly De La Cruz was down in the count to pitcher Logan Webb, 0-2, but worked an impressive walk. After Gavin Lux’s walk put Reds on first and second base, Jeimer Candelario singled to drive De La Cruz in.
De La Cruz’s walk really changed that half-inning because Webb was cruising, and was one strike away from striking out the side.
b…was a strike. Greene did his part to fire up the crowd, setting the Giants down in order with two strikeouts. This crowd is juiced and ready to explode.
Here’s the Cincinnati Reds’ Opening Day lineup:
T. J. Friedl, center fieldMatt McLain, second baseElly De La Cruz, shortstopGavin Lux, left fieldJeimer Candelario, third baseSpencer Steer, designated hitterChristian Encarnacion-Strand, first baseJake Fraley, right fieldJose Trevino, catcherLaMonte Wade Jr., first baseWilly Adames, shortstopJung Hoo Lee, center fieldMatt Chapman, third baseHeliot Ramos, left fieldPatrick Bailey, catcherWilmer Flores, designated hitterMike Yastrzemski, right fieldTyler Fitzgerald, second base
Today’s starting pitchers are a matchup of 2024 MLB All-Stars in the Reds’ Hunter Greene and San Fransisco’s Logan Webb.
Greene went 9-5 in 26 starts in 2024, posting 2.75 ERA. Webb was 13-10 in 33 starts with a 3.47 ERA.
The Giants vs. Reds Opening Day game is scheduled for 4:10 p.m. and will be broadcast locally on FanDuel Sports Cincinnati and Fox 19 (WXIX-TV).
The Reds have some significant pieces on the injured list (IL) to begin 2025, but so far none of those players are expected to miss extended time.
The big losses for the first couple of weeks of the regular season are Austin Hays, the projected starting left fielder and cleanup hitter who is on the 10-day IL, and Tyler Stephenson, the Reds durable starting catcher who is on the 15-day IL.
Also on the IL are: Andrew Abbott, Alexis Diaz, Rhett Lowder (all 15-day IL). Pitcher Brandon Williamson is on the 60-day IL as he continues to progress in his rehab from Tommy John surgery.
Opening Day in Cincinnati is unique in the baseball world. All clubs mark the day with pomp and pageantry, but no city or region does it quite like Greater Cincinnati, where a parade in the city’s urban core stepped off just after noon Thursday.
A crowd that numbered in the tens of thousands gathered near Great American Ball Park, where the surrounding streets were closed for celebrating and revelry.
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