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 – Leave the back door open long enough, and you never know what’ll find its way inside.
“Cockroaches.”
Maybe even that.
That’s how infielder Gavin Lux summed up this season’s Cincinnati Reds on the postgame broadcast the other night.
These playoff-bound Cincinnati Reds.
“We’re like cockroaches,” he said. “You can’t kill us.”
The New York Mets made sure of that on the final day of the 2025 baseball season when their months-long, $340 million collapse hit bottom in a loss to the Miami Marlins – ending the Mets’ playoff hopes and sending the Reds to Los Angeles through the back door of Dodger Stadium for Tuesday’s playoff opener.
The Reds and Mets finished the regular season in a tie for the NL’s final wild-card spot after both lost their season finale’s on Sept. 28, the Reds blowing a early 2-0 lead in their 4-2 loss to the Brewers.
That gave the Reds the final spot in the MLB playoff field by virtue of their 4-2 head-to-head record against the Mets this season.
Front door, back door or down the chimney, the Reds don’t seem too concerned with the route they took to the champagne on a late-September afternoon in Milwaukee.
They won just enough games in just enough time – eight of their last 11 – to take advantage of a Mets free-fall that began in June and accelerated in late July, eventually culminating with 14 losses in their last 21 games.
As recently as Sept. 5, a Reds loss to the Mets put Cincinnati six games out of playoff position. An eight-game Mets losing streak (started with two against the Reds) coincided with a quick 4-1 burst for the Reds that kept them alive.
And almost every day the rest of the way was fraught with drama and roller-coaster emotions and do-or-die stakes.
All the way to a 17th postseason berth for the Reds, their first in five years — first since 2013 in a full season.
“We’ve felt we’ve been playing playoff baseball now for awhile,” closer Emilio Pagán said on the eve of the clinch party. “Obviously, we’ve needed some help across the league, and there’s no doubt we’ve gotten some.
“But right now we’re playing really good baseball,” he said. “This is what you sign up for.”
The clincher punched a 12th postseason ticket for first-year Reds manager Terry Francona in 24 seasons as a manager. It’s the third franchise he’s managed into October, having won two World Series with the Red Sox and reached another with Cleveland.
Cincinnati Reds celebrate playoff matchup with Los Angeles Dodgers
The Cincinnati Reds on Sunday clinched the final berth in the 2025 MLB playoff field
“I haven’t been here too long, but he’s a great manager,” said rookie Sal Stewart, who has thrived and contributed during his monthlong debut. “He’s been there, done that with multiple teams. I know the players, we’re trying to do whatever we can not only for ourselves but to win for him as well.”
Next up to try to exterminate these cockroaches is the defending Word Series-champion Dodgers, who swept the Reds in a three game series at Dodger Stadium barely a month ago. They’re 1-5 against the Dodgers this season.
The Reds are trying to win a playoff series for the first time in 30 years, the longest active drought for postseason success in the four American major-league sports.
The best-of-three wild-card round opens Tuesday night at 9:08 p.m. ET. Game 2 is at the same time Wednesday night. And Game 3 would be Wednesday. All three games would be at Dodger Stadium.
The last team the Reds beat in a playoff series?
The Dodgers in a three-game sweep in 1995.
“This franchise has a rich history,” Pagán said, “and we’re trying to add to it.”