Reds MLB playoffs locker room celebration
Red players, coaches and staff pop bottles in the visitors clubhouse at American Family Field after clinching a 2025 National League wild card berth.
MILWAUKEE − The haze of cigar smoke settled and the frothy pellets of beer stopped raining down. The Cincinnati Reds had run out to the playing surface at Milwaukee’s American Family Field for a commemorative team photograph in celebration of reaching MLB’s postseason.
Back in the quiet of the visitors clubhouse, where the party was beginning to wind down, a reality dawned on some: It will soon be time to play postseason baseball, and the Reds have some serious decisions to make ahead of a short, best-of-three Wild Card series against the monied, star-studded Los Angeles Dodgers.
“We got, what, 36 hours to get a lot of things in order but I’d much rather be busy and scrambling than going home,” Reds manager Terry Francona said. “We need to figure some things out. We gotta figure a lot of things out but we will.”
The Reds’ season finale offered up some personnel developments: Austin Hays appeared in the game and took an at-bat. He’d spent the last week fighting to get back on the field after back spasms began to ail him during the mid-September four-game sweep of the Chicago Cubs.
Also, Nick Lodolo came on for an inning of relief against the Brewers after he was lifted from a Sept. 25 start as a precaution for what was feared to be a right groin injury at the team.
“I told Nick I appreciated what he did,” Francona said. “Guys don’t have to do that, and there’s some places where guys don’t do that. And we were able to stay away from Hunter (Greene). That was one of the hardest games to manage because you want to win so bad and I knew what the score was. We’ve also got to have a pitcher Tuesday.”
Hays’ and Lodolo’s appearance signal they’ll likely play a role in the first postseason series.
The Dodgers on Sept. 28 revealed their pitchers for the Wild Card series, and will go with Blake Snell in the Sept. 30 opener followed by Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game Two and, if necessary, Shohei Ohtani in a decisive Game Three.
The only details of the Reds’ starting pitching plan going in is that Hunter Greene was expected to start Game One. He appeared to be available to Francona in the regular-season finale but wasn’t used.