{"id":547364,"date":"2026-03-26T23:55:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T23:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/547364\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T23:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T23:55:08","slug":"red-sox-3-0-reds-mar-26-2026-game-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/547364\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox 3-0 Reds (Mar 26, 2026) Game Recap"},"content":{"rendered":"

CINCINNATI — \u2014 Garrett Crochet<\/a> allowed only three hits in six innings, Ceddanne Rafaela<\/a> hit an RBI single in the seventh inning and the Boston Red Sox<\/a> got their first opening day shutout since 2015, defeating the Cincinnati Reds<\/a> 3-0 on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Roman Anthony<\/a> had three hits for the Red Sox, who had their 11th opening day shutout \u2014 with all but one on the road.<\/p>\n

It’s the ninth time the Reds have been blanked in an opener and the first since 2018. Rookie first baseman Sal Stewart<\/a> had three of Cincinnati’s four hits, including a pair of doubles.<\/p>\n

Crochet (1-0) became the first pitcher to start on opening day in each of his first three seasons as a starter, according to MLB. The right-hander struck out six and walked two en route to his first victory in an opener.<\/p>\n

Crochet allowed only one hit the first five innings before running into some trouble in the sixth. Matt McLain<\/a> drew a walk with one out and singles by Elly de la Cruz and Stewart loaded the bases.<\/p>\n

The right-hander struck out Eugenio Su\u00e1rez and Spencer Steer<\/a> to get out of the inning.<\/p>\n

Former Reds closer Aroldis Chapman<\/a> retired the side in the ninth for the save.<\/p>\n

Andrew Abbott<\/a>, the first lefty to start a Reds opener since 1998, matched Crochet with six shutout innings and struck out four.<\/p>\n

Rafaela lined Pierce Johnson<\/a>‘s fastball up the middle to drive in Marcelo Mayer<\/a>. Mayer came on as a pinch-hitter in the seventh and drove a double to the warning track in left center off Johnson (0-1) that was just beyond the outstretched glove of Reds center fielder TJ Friedl<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mayer advanced to third on Carlos Narv\u00e1ez’s sacrifice bunt before scoring on Rafaela’s second single of the game.<\/p>\n

Boston added a pair of runs in the ninth on RBI singles by Trevor Story<\/a> and Jaren Duran.<\/p>\n

Up next <\/p>\n

Red Sox RHP Sonny Gray<\/a> (14-8, 4.28 ERA in 2025) will face Reds RHP Brady Singer<\/a> (14-12, 4.03 ERA in 2025) on Saturday.<\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CINCINNATI — \u2014 Garrett Crochet allowed only three hits in six innings, Ceddanne Rafaela hit an RBI single…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":["post-547364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}