Chase Burns got the start in Saturday afternoon’s contest between the Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Guardians in the two teams’ combined complex in Goodyear, Arizona, and in doing so officially began their Cactus League campaign.
Burns kept the Guardians off the board in a pair of scoreless frames, doing so without so much as allowing a hit. He did walk a trio against a pair of strikeouts before handing the ball over to Rhett Lowder, a fellow Wake Forest product who’s also very much in the mix for a spot in the team’s Opening Day rotation. Lowder fanned 4 in his pair of IP, though he did get dinged for a pair of hits, a walk, and a run allowed. Julian Aguiar, himself an outside candidate for the team’s starting rotation, similarly allowed a run in a pair of IP.
On the offensive side of things, it was once again Will Benson haunting his former club. Cleveland’s former 1st round pick slugged a 2-run homer off righty Colin Holderman after lefty Logan Allen – Cleveland’s starter on the day – departed after a pair of scoreless frames. in a battle for a spot on the Opening Day roster himself alongside the likes of JJ Bleday and Nathaniel Lowe as one of the team’s lefty bats with some pop, it was once again a reminder that Benson still owns a wealth of yet-to-be-tapped potential that he showed, at times, in 2025 during a horribly unlucky campaign on the surface.
Edwin Arroyo chipped in with a double and a run scored for the lone other extra-base hit on the day for Cincinnati, while Hagen Danner – a former 2nd round pick by the Toronto Blue Jays – was tagged for a pair of ER in a lone IP out of the bullpen to wrap up the pertinent portions of Cincinnati’s box score.
Jose Franco will take the ball to start tomorrow’s game against the Seattle Mariners as the Reds play host at Goodyear for the first time (they were the road team against Cleveland on Saturday). First pitch in that one is set for 3:05 PM ET, though it will only be able to be perceived with your ears via 700 WLW and the MLB At-Bat app.