The Reds vs Yankees series opens Friday night in the Bronx, and Cincinnati still does not have Elly De La Cruz. The three-game set starts with the Reds trying to work around a hamstring strain that has kept their shortstop out since the start of June.
Yankee Stadium opens Friday
The New York Yankees host the Cincinnati Reds for three games of interleague action, with the first pitch set for 7:05 pm ET. All three games of the weekend set will be televised on YES.
Cam Schlittler is scheduled to start for the Yankees against Rhett Lowder. Lowder missed the entire 2025 season with injuries before returning in May, and he allowed one run in 5.2 innings in his most recent start against the Diamondbacks.
Reds lineup pressure
Without De La Cruz, the Reds have to lean harder on Sal Stewart, Nathaniel Lowe and JJ Bleday. Stewart leads the club with 14 doubles and 14 homers, while Bleday has hit.265/.367/.572 with 13 homers and a 153 OPS+ in 45 games.
Bleday also posted a 1.018 OPS in May and won the NL Player of the Month award. That kind of production gives Cincinnati a cleaner path to replace at-bats than a one-player solution, especially in a series where the Reds are missing one of their biggest offensive names.
Rhett Lowder and Saturday
The Reds are 35-38 and last in the NL Central, but they have still won three of four series against the Yankees since the schedule changed in 2022. That is the friction in this matchup: Cincinnati arrives with a losing record, yet the recent head-to-head results have gone its way more often than not.
Will Warren is set to start for the Yankees against Andrew Abbott on Saturday at 1:35 pm ET. Whether Elly De La Cruz will return for any game in the series is not answered, so the first two starts give the clearest picture of how Cincinnati plans to cover the missing production.
