​The Cubs will make their first 2026 visit to Great American Ball Park just as we’re heading into the All-Star break, with another appearance planned in September for the stretch run. For more Reds coverage, hear from Wick Terrell, the manager of SB Nation’s Reds site, Red Reporter.
The Cincinnati Reds have been a mess, a refrain baseball fans have heard too often. Once again mired in last place in the NL Central, they somehow managed not only to disappoint but to collapse in a way that’s almost comical. At the start of the year, 3B Ke’Bryan Hayes, 2B Matt McLain, and OF TJ Friedl were among the least productive trio offensively, yet the Reds still managed to win several one-run games and even climb as high as nine games over .500 by the end of April — all without Hunter Greene, who missed most of the first half after elbow surgery.
As the situation worsened with Hayes and Friedl, injuries and underperformance mounted: Hayes needed an IL stint, Friedl was demoted after a stretch as one of the better leadoff men in the game, and once those two fell, the team stopped finding ways to win. Veteran observers might point to the back end of the bullpen (Emilio Pagan, Tony Santillan, and Graham Ashcraft), along with injuries to Eugenio Suárez and Elly De La Cruz, as contributing factors. Twitter replies, however, would tell a different story.
Either way, the Reds are flirting with double-digit deficits under .500 after posting the worst record in baseball through May and June, heading into the All-Star break as likely sellers again — unless a miracle home-series against the Cubs in the season’s first half somehow changes the tone, which would require a level of initiative the team has rarely shown.
The Cubs and Reds have a long history, having faced each other in 2,433 games since the Reds joined the National League in 1890. Across all those games, the Cubs have won 1,217 to the Reds’ 1,194, with 22 ties — a margin that narrowed to 19 games after the Cubs swept a four-game set at Wrigley Field from May 4–7. In Cincinnati last season, the Cubs lost four straight in late September (the first and last games decided by 1–0), though they had taken two of three at Great American Ball Park earlier in the year. The Cubs’ most recent sweep at Cincinnati came in a three-game series from June 27–29, 2016; since then, they’ve played 24 series there, including four where they won the first two games before dropping the third.
This weekend’s matchup features specific pitching duels: Friday’s tilt has Shōta Imanaga (LHP, 5-7, 4.28) facing Hunter Greene (RHP, 0-1, 21.60), Saturday’s contest pits Javier Assad (RHP, 6-1, 4.15) against Nick Lodolo (LHP, 3-2, 4.68), and Sunday’s game will see Matthew Boyd (LHP, 4-1, 4.31) square off with an opponent to be announced. For deeper context and updates on the teams’ paths forward, fans can follow ongoing coverage from Red Reporter and related Reds coverage, as the season moves toward the trade deadline and beyond.