Rhett Lowder’s final outing of the year gave the Reds exactly what they needed: a clean, steady start to close the book on an uneven first full season.
In Toronto on Saturday, Lowder worked six scoreless innings and helped Cincinnati beat the Blue Jays 5-1 at Rogers Centre. The right-hander allowed three hits and two walks, struck out two, and needed 79 pitches, 50 of them for strikes.
That finish stood out because the rest of the month had gone sideways. Lowder entered the day 0-4 with a 12.33 ERA over his previous four starts, and only one of those appearances lasted longer than four innings. A rough September had been threatening to swallow the year whole.
Instead, his last start became one of his best. Lowder had to work through some early traffic after walking his first two hitters on eight straight balls, but he escaped the first inning without damage when he struck out Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and got Alejandro Kirk to ground into a double play.
From there, the Reds right-hander settled in. After Brett Bateman’s one-out double in the third, Lowder retired 11 of his final 12 batters.
The outing capped a season that was far from smooth. Lowder finished 7-12 with a 5.74 ERA in 29 games, including 26 starts. People tend to forget, as Terry Francona has pointed out, that even though Lowder debuted for the Reds with six starts in 2024, he was still a rookie in 2026 and had missed all of 2025 because of injuries.
His year had plenty of bumps: rough starts, a trip to the injured list, and even a brief move to the bullpen. But Saturday’s work at least gave the Reds a strong final snapshot.
Offensively, Cincinnati backed him early. JJ Bleday opened the scoring in the second inning with a leadoff home run to right-center field off Trey Yesavage.
The Reds added two more in the third, including Eugenio Suárez’s two-out RBI double. They pushed across two more in the fifth on Héctor Rodríguez’s triple off the wall in left field.
In Other News...
Reds Just Sent An Early Offseason Message Fans Wont Ignore
A day after making a brief return to the majors, Julian Aguiar was on the move again, this time leaving the Reds organization on waivers and landing with the Cubs. The former Cincinnati pitching prospect had spent most of 2026 at Triple-A while working back from Tommy John surgery in 2024, and his recall in September at least hinted that the Reds still saw a useful arm worth keeping close.
Instead, Chicago moved quickly to claim him, adding a fresh option to its pitching depth for the stretch run. Aguiar cannot appear on the Cubs postseason roster because he was added after Sept. 1, but he can still be used in late-season games, which gives the division rival an immediate chance to see whether Cincinnati may have let an arm get away too soon. [Read more 🡒]
Reds Could Finally Handle One Offseason Decision Very Differently
The Reds have spent years working with a front office structure where the baseball staff has not always had the final say on baseball moves, but that dynamic appears to be changing. Bob Castellini has confirmed that Nick Krall and Brad Meador will be back in 2027, and he also said the clubs baseball leaders will be the ones making baseball decisions, a notable shift for a team that has at times been tied to ownership approval on certain trades.
For Cincinnati, the real significance may show up this winter if the club is willing to operate more like a Brewers-style organization and move pieces before they become harder to manage. That opens the door to a different kind of offseason, with names such as Emilio Pagn, Dane Myers and Tejay Antone all fitting into the kind of trade discussion the Reds have not always embraced. The question now is whether the front office finally has the freedom to act on that approach. [Read more 🡒]
Reds Future Dugout Plan Just Got A Lot More Real
A familiar name in the Reds dugout took on a bigger role against the Blue Jays when Terry Francona handed Mike Napoli the game-management duties for a night, a move that said plenty about how the club is thinking beyond the immediate stretch run. Napoli, who was just promoted to bench coach, has a rsum that already includes time as a player and coach under Francona, and that background makes him a natural fit to keep moving up the ladder in Cincinnati.
Francona still has a club option for 2028, but the longer-term picture around his future remains unsettled enough that the Reds are clearly keeping an eye on what comes next. Giving Napoli a chance to steer things in a live game was more than a symbolic gesture, it was another sign that the organization may already be testing the contours of a possible succession plan. [Read more 🡒]