CINCINNATI — Before Tuesday’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds pitchers Chase Burns, Jose Franco and Connor Phillips got together to take a picture with the scorecard from Monday’s game.
The Reds beat the Pirates 2-0 Monday in the fourth game of the 2026 season, a game that by July could be forgotten by many, but for each of the three Reds pitchers, it was a special “first” in the big leagues — Burns’ first win, Franco’s first appearance and Phillips’ first save.
“It’s kind of awesome — three young guys just going out there and doing their job, and it just so happens that we all had some big accomplishments last night,” Burns said before Tuesday’s game.
Monday night’s postgame celebration was a traditional “beer shower” — where those who have earned a significant milestone are doused in beer in the clubhouse shower. Usually there’s just one target for teammates to dump beer on, but having three was special — and there was certainly enough beer to go around.
For Burns, the wait was long but is now thankfully over. It seems odd that Burns, whose debut was the stuff of legend, didn’t have a win this past season. He started eight games and came into five more in relief during the regular season. Although he struck out the first five New York Yankees he faced in his debut, the Reds won the game in the 11th, with Phillips picking up the win (his second career win). The Reds lost all seven of his remaining starts.
Burns left some of those games with leads and pitched well, but as every starter will point out, all the starter can do is put his team in position to win; the offense has to score for the starter to get the win.
Even with that knowledge, Brady Singer said they still had to tease Burns that he hadn’t gotten a win before Monday night.
“As soon as Chase was done, I looked at him and said, ‘We’ve got to do it,’” Singer recalled.
Singer said Burns told him, “Stop talking about it, I’m trying not to think about it.”
Tuesday, Burns said he wasn’t thinking about the win the night before, even if his teammates wouldn’t stop reminding him. The win, no matter when it happened, would be special, but it was a bonus that it came in his first start of the season, because his parents had come up from their home in Tennessee to watch the game in person.
Singer’s parents weren’t in the stands for his first win, nor was anyone else at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City on Aug. 9, 2020, for the Royals’ game against the Minnesota Twins. Singer’s entire season of firsts was played in empty stadiums, just like all of the truncated 60-game season.
“You dream about playing in the big leagues, and there’s something about the first one is really special and having a ‘1’ next to your name in the big leagues on the internet,” Singer said. “It was really, really cool, but different because of COVID for sure.”
Singer’s 50 wins are the most of any of the Reds’ starters. Nearly six years after that first win, he said he really remembered only that it was against the Twins. He has the scorecard framed at his house and occasionally walks by it and looks at the names, which can bring back some memories.
Emilio Pagán, whose 66 career saves are the most among Reds pitchers, couldn’t even remember the year of his first save off the top of his head. Instead, he had to do some deductive reasoning.
“I’m guessing it was in ’19 because I don’t remember having one in Seattle. Didn’t have one in Oakland,” said Pagán, who played for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2019. “I didn’t break camp that year with the team, I was just really happy to be on the team. I don’t even remember who it was against.”
With that, he guessed it was against the Royals. A quick search on Baseball Reference showed that it was indeed against the Royals at Tropicana Field on April 22, 2019. He picked up save No. 2 the next night. The internet, not his memory, reminded Pagán that the first batter he faced for his first save was the Royals’ Chris Owings, a travel ball teammate from his high school days in South Carolina. The final out was a groundout from Martín Maldonado, Pagán’s future teammate on Puerto Rico’s World Baseball Classic team in 2023.
“I got a groundball?” Pagán said, looking at the play-by-play from that night. “Sick — it doesn’t happen much.”
Catcher Tyler Stephenson and Reds relief pitcher Connor Phillips celebrate Phillips’ first major-league save. (Katie Stratman / Imagn Images)
As Phillips was asked about his first save Tuesday afternoon, Matt McLain’s game-clinching catch was on the TV as the top play on ESPN’s “SportsCenter.” Pagán, on the couch facing Phillips’ locker, laughed as the replay showed Phillips urging right fielder Will Benson to come in on Nick Gonzalez’s pop-up to shallow right. Watching again, Phillips smiled as he saw himself on TV celebrating the save.
“I saw (second baseman Matt McLain) going back — and he was deep — but when he started calling for the ball, I knew he had it,” Phillips said. “When Matty calls for the ball, he’s going to get it.”
As good as the play was, what Phillips will remember more is the mound visit by pitching coach Derek Johnson after he walked the first two batters of the ninth.
“He actually told me I have the best stuff on the staff,” Phillips said. “That’s a huge — one thing for him to say, but also confidence it gives me.”
The message between the lines was for Phillips to just trust his stuff and throw it over the plate. He struck out the next batter and then got two outs in the air to finish the game.
“Everybody around here is like, ‘It’s the entertainment business,’” Phillips said of his outing. “I’m like, ‘Guys, I don’t want it to be that entertaining.’”
In Texas, Phillips’ father was watching the game in his garage, as he does every night. Phillips called his dad, who told his son the two walks nearly gave him a heart attack.
Franco’s parents, in Venezuela, didn’t have to worry about walks. Taking over for Burns in the sixth inning, Franco’s first three pitches were strikes.
“I felt a little nervous before the first pitch, but after the first pitch, I said, ‘Hey, it’s the same game. You know what they need you to do.’”
What he did was record five outs — a lifesaver for a bullpen that had several relievers unavailable after pitching both of the previous two days. Franco gave up three hits but no runs before giving way to Graham Ashcraft.
“I’ll remember that I was very happy, but more importantly, I helped the team to win,” Franco said. “I wanted this, it’s unbelievable. When it came time to help the team, I helped the team and did my job.”
Reds manager Terry Francona managed the 3,789th game of his career Tuesday night and appeared in 707 more as a player. As befitting a man who has been in 4,496 games, Francona had a story about his first in the big leagues.
A Montreal Expos first-round pick in 1980, Francona was playing for the Triple-A Denver Bears in August 1981, shortly after the second half of the strike-interrupted 1981 season resumed. While the MLB strike had been settled, the air traffic controllers’ strike had not, meaning getting from Denver to Houston, where the Expos were playing, was difficult.
Francona received a 7 a.m. call telling him he was getting called up and would be leading off that day’s game against the Astros. When he looked at the newspaper, he saw the bad news — Nolan Ryan was starting for Houston.
Because of the strike, Francona missed the start and the start of the game, finally getting dropped off near center field of the Astrodome in the fourth inning. By the time he got to the clubhouse, into his uniform and into the dugout, it was the sixth inning.
“(Expos manager) Dick Williams put his hand out and said, ‘You’re leading off next inning,’” Francona said. “Didn’t even say hello. F–k, really? Can I enjoy this for a minute?”
Ryan, though, was lifted before Francona could make his debut against the future Hall of Famer. Instead, he faced right-hander Dave Smith.
“They probably should’ve left Nolan in because I was geared for God. Dave Smith is throwing these changeups,” Francona said. “I remember thinking, ‘G-d damn, what have I gotten myself into here?’”