Fueled by early-season fireworks from Elly De La Cruz and rookie Sal Stewart, the offense for the Reds had largely been fueled by the two-headed monster of the 3- and 4-hole hitters.

De La Cruz is the first Red to hit for 10 Homeruns before May 1 since Eric Davis in 1990, and he may not be alone, as Stewart sits at 9 bombs with two games to go in April. Elly has also been providing all-star-caliber defense at short, committing only three errors in the first 30 games of the season, with his fielding percentage jumping from 0.955 in 2025 to 0.973.

Sal Stewart has been nothing short of spectacular. Batting average hovering around the .300 mark and leading the Majors in RBI’s as of April 28.

Nathaniel Lowe, TJ Freidl, and Ke’Bryan Hayes have all had positive weeks offensively and have started to see the ball better from the box. All three are finding success after slow starts to their seasons, Lowe being the most notable, hitting 2 two home runs, including a walk-off in the rain-delayed victory against the Tigers on April 24th.

Offensively, as a team, they are providing more runs for their pitchers to rely on. Until April 10^th, the Red were averaging only 2.93 runs per game and were heavily reliant on stellar pitching to win games.

Since April 10, they have turned it around, nearly doubling the early offensive production, averaging 5.6 runs a game in the last 15 contests.

A shuffling of the outfield has seen the team send Noelvi Marte to AAA, where he earned International League Player of the week in his first week there, and bring up the duo of JJ Bleday and Rece Hinds to try and generate some offensive power from the outfield after the early struggles in the season.

As good as the bats are swinging now, the arms were equally as impressive in the first half of the young season. Since the offense has turned up the heat, the starting rotation and relievers have come back down to earth after their early-season shutdown of opposing offenses.

Do not get it twisted, “falling back to earth” for these Reds still makes them a top-tier unit. Chase Burns and Rhett Lowder are pushing to headline the unit.

Burns has a team low 2.65 ERA and 39 strikeouts to headline the Reds.

The usually steady duo of Brady Singer and Andrew Abbott has been hit around more than normal to begin the season. Each has 40 and 38 hits against in the early portion of the season.

Abbott has seen his season ERA balloon to 6.59 over the past few weeks, particularly having some trouble in the early frames of his starts, having yet to pitch into the 6^th inning. He has given up at least one run in the first two innings of each of his last three starts, and 4 of 5 games started overall.

Relief pitcher Tony Santillan was finally scored against in the season against the Tigers in the Nate Lowe walk-off game, but other than that one blemish, he has been spectacular, leading the squad with 8 holds on the young season.

Coming out of the gates strong is a good launching point for the 2026 season. Exceeding expectations early is an early sign of this team’s identity.

“There is something special about this team,” said John Sadak on numerous broadcasts this season.

The late fights, close game success, and team effort highlight what Cincinnati baseball is all about.

The Reds are 11-0 in games that are decided by 2 runs or fewer. That isn’t going to remain perfect as the season goes on, but being able to inch those close games out is a sign of growth from this team.

Last season, the Reds were a putrid 35-79 in such scenarios.

All-star seasons from the Elly and Sal Stewart will need to persist if the Reds wish to remain in first in the NL Central. Timely contributions from the rest of the starters will continue to be essential as Cincinnati looks to build off of last season’s NL Wildcard visit.

They will get help on the pitching staff as well. Nick Lodolo is rehabbing from his blisters that landed him on the IL in spring training, and Hunter Greene projects to return from the IL in July.

If both players can come back and return to form, that leaves the Reds in a very favorable spot where they have 6 different starters that are more than capable of winning you a game on any given night.

That could also mean trade deadline moves to bolster the lineup. Yordan Alvarez is an all-world slugger who could be on the move due to the Astros impending rebuild.

The Reds have Cincinnati fans excited early in the season. If they can build off the foundations that have made the team competitive early in the season, they are a dangerous team and can make a run.

On the contrary, if they lose focus and return to old habits of years past, there is more than enough time to slip away in the NL Central and make the early-season surge meaningless.

The Reds won last night to kick off the series against the Colorado Rockies, bringing their record to a strong 19-10. Looking for a fifth straight series win and to propel themselves into a weekend series against the Pirates.