Brady Singer takes the mound tonight as the Cincinnati Reds (62-70) look to bounce back from a lifeless loss yesterday in the second game of three with the San Francisco Giants (53-78) Tuesday night at Oracle Park. First pitch is at 9:45 PM EDT.

LineupsCincinnati Reds
San Francisco GiantsElly De La Cruz – SSDrew Gilbert – CFSal Stewart – 1BRafael Devers – 1BJJ Bleday – LFJung Hoo Lee – DHTyler Stephenson – CTurner Hill – LFEugenio Suárez – DHDrew Cavanaugh – CMatt McLain – 2BNate Furman – 2BHector Rodríguez – RFShay Whitcomb – 3BKe’Bryan Hayes  3BGrant McCray – RFTJ Friedl – CFChristian Koss – SSStarting PitchersBrady Singer

In 2026, Singer has pitched significantly worse away from home vs. at Great American Ball Park, which is surprising because he’s allowed more home runs at GABP (13 at home and 12 on the road). Singer’s road ERA is 5.75 ERA in 61.0 innings at home, while his home ERA is only 3.82 in 70.2 innings. Oracle Park is second-last in MLB in home runs, so that may play to Singer’s advantage tonight, as long as he can limit the gap shots.

There’s a wide margin in Singer’s splits between lefties and righties. While he does face more lefties as a right-handed pitcher, left-handed hitters also hit him significantly better, with a .302 batting average and a .503 slugging percentage. Meanwhile, right-handed hitters are hitting only .226 against him. However, Singer does strike out a lot more lefties, with a 21% strikeout percentage against them vs. only a 14% strikeout percentage against righties.

Splits 

SplitPAH2B3BHRBB%K%AVGOBPSLGRHH209428179%14%.226.306.393LHH374102121186%21%.302.360.503

Pitch Usage

2-SeamSliderSweeperCutter4-SeamVelo91.382.682.087.390.7Usage49.3%25.8%15.3%7.1%2.4%Adrian Houser

While 33-year-old right-hander Adrian Houser has an ERA just over 4.00 on the season, he has pitched outstandingly well over the last month. He has allowed just two earned runs on 17 hits with 15 strikeouts in 21.0 innings and five games. It would be important to mention, however, that in that last month, Houser has only started one of those games. He’s been pitching mainly out of the bullpen, and tonight will be just his second start in that span.

Houser is a predominantly fastball pitcher, who usually doesn’t strike out many batters (bottom 7% of MLB), won’t get hitters to chase, and hitters make hard contact against him. However, the two things he does do fairly well is not allowing walks and inducing ground balls. The Reds should be very familiar with Houser, as the Reds are one of the teams he has faced the most from his time with the Milwaukee Brewers. He has a 4.89 ERA in 17 starts against them and has allowed 13 home runs to Reds hitters, including one to Tyler Stephenson and two to Eugenio Suárez.

Splits

SplitPAH2B3BHRBB%K%AVGOBPSLGRHH182396132%13%.227.239.326LHH282691911211%17%.281.367.512

Pitch Usage

2-Seam4-SeamChangeSliderCurveVelo94.995.785.388.482.3Usage45.8%21.3%16.1%9.8%7.0%Game Details:Time: 9:45 PM EDTPlace: Oracle Park, San Francisco, CATV: Reds MLB Channel, Reds.TV (in network), MLB.TV (out-of-network)Radio: 700 WLW (Cincinnati area)Forecast: 64 degrees, mostly sunny, 0% chance of rainNews and Notes 

Ashcraft Goes on Rehab Assignment

Graham Ashcraft starts at rehab assignment with Triple-A Louisville tonight, and while he’s close to returning, he might spend a little more time there than normal.

Down on the Farm

The Reds top prospect Alfredo Duno had been on the injured list with Chattanooga, but he was activated today. You can read about his return and all the other roster moves made at the minor league level today. 

The DSL Reds won their series today and are moving on to play for the league championship this weekend 

Division StandingsTeamWLGBFangraph’s Playoff OddsMilwaukee8150–100.0%Chicago76565.599.1%St. Louis666615.52.9%Pittsburgh646918.01.7%Cincinnati627019.50.0%