Reds Score stays at zero as Red Sox ride Crochet, relievers, and ABS to Opening Day win
CINCINNATI — reds score never moved Thursday afternoon as the Red Sox opened the 2026 season with a 3-0 victory at Great American Ball Park, a game shaped as much by pitching as by the automated ball-strike challenge system that helped turn a 1-0 nailbiter into late separation.
How Reds Score was held down: Crochet sets the tone, relievers finish it
The central on-field fact of Opening Day was simple: Cincinnati did not score. Garrett Crochet led the way for Boston, and the Reds then faced what amounted to a closing wall of three shutdown relievers. In the final three frames, Justin Slaten, Garrett Whitlock, and Aroldis Chapman combined to allow only two baserunners, completing a game-long effort that left Cincinnati without a run in its first game of the season.
The Reds did have moments to test the start. One sequence stood out as pivotal: a bases-loaded jam that Crochet worked through in a game where neither offense produced much early. Boston’s pitching, backed by tight relief work, meant any Cincinnati opportunity had to be converted immediately. It wasn’t.
On the Boston side, the first run did not arrive until the seventh inning, when Ceddanne Rafaela delivered an RBI single. Trevor Story and Jarren Duran later drove in insurance runs in the ninth. The overall shape of the game was a pitchers’ duel until the late innings widened it.
What changed in the ninth: ABS challenges extend the inning and create runs
The most consequential moment came with the game still close. In the top of the ninth, the Red Sox were initially one pitch away from ending the inning with a 1-0 lead. Roman Anthony challenged what had been called an inning-ending third strike. The call was overturned, becoming an inning-extending walk that kept Boston at the plate.
That reversal mattered immediately. Instead of returning to the field to protect a one-run advantage, the Red Sox continued the inning and produced two more runs, building the final 3-0 margin. In a game defined by limited scoring chances, the ability to “keep an inning alive” became the hinge point.
Boston’s catcher, Carlos Narváez, also played a direct role in how the challenge system influenced the game. He went 2-for-3 on challenges behind the plate, including one that flipped an Eugenio Suárez walk into a strikeout to end the fourth inning. By the final out, the combination of challenges and execution had created a clean pathway from a slim lead to a comfortable finish.
Opening Day hype vs. hard evidence: where Reds Score fits into the bigger picture
Hours before first pitch, Reds manager Terry Francona leaned into the traditional Opening Day drama, calling it “Overreaction Day” and noting how quickly narratives harden after a single result. That framing became part of the day’s aftertaste: Cincinnati hosted its signature opener—complete with a massive parade and the sport’s oldest-franchise pageantry—but the scoreboard never reflected the spectacle.
For Boston, Thursday’s game offered early evidence points that will be watched closely. Crochet looked like the same pitcher who finished second in Cy Young Award voting last year. Anthony reached base four times and collected three hits. Marcelo Mayer, who did not start against a left-handed starter, entered and produced immediate offense with a single, a double, and two runs scored.
In the American League East standings after one game, Boston was tied with the Yankees and Orioles for first place. Before the opener, Red Sox CEO Sam Kennedy joked about a “must-win” to avoid falling a full game behind New York, which had already won its opener 7-0 against San Francisco. Those standings are inherently small-sample, but the on-field ingredients—dominant pitching and a rules system capable of swinging an inning—were concrete.
In that context, reds score is less a headline gimmick than a data point. Boston demonstrated a blueprint for winning without early offense: get elite innings from the starter, preserve a narrow edge with clean relief, and take full advantage of the challenge system when the margin is thin. Cincinnati, on its most ceremonial day, learned how unforgiving that combination can be when the opposing pitching staff refuses to yield a mistake.
Boston’s schedule context was also set in motion. The teams were slated for an off day Friday, with the Red Sox returning Saturday afternoon at 1: 40 p. m. ET. The early storyline is now clear: a season opener in which the result was decided by pitching dominance and a ninth-inning challenge that helped create distance—while reds score remained stuck at zero.
