CINCINNATI — Terry Francona can only hope that Thursday morning was not a sign of things to come for the 2025 Reds.
In the hours before his first game as manager of the Reds on a day that is a holiday in Cincinnati, Francona woke up with a horrific toothache. So, asked how his day was going on his first Opening Day as Reds manager, his answer was not the rosiest.
“Not the best. Woke up about 2am one of my veneers, I think I chewed out,” Francona said. “So woke up about six because I thought the trainer could probably get me in, but I didn’t want to be (a problem). So, then he called me about eight and said, ‘You’re all set.’ So, I went out to wherever it was, got it fixed, and now I’m ready to go. I didn’t want to go through Opening Day looking like Jethro Bodine from the campus, so I got it fixed. Started today in the dentist chair. It only gets better. I mean, the cooperation was appreciated.”
Francona wants to keep that mouth in good shape because there will be times he needs to deliver a certain message, like at the start of the spring training and yesterday when he was delivering his season-opening message to the club.
“It a little more general at the beginning (of spring training), when there’s, like, 65 guys. It’s a little more personal (at start of season) and it was very short, but just just reiterating who we are and what we want to be and how we want to get there,” Francona told me. “I think it’s okay to to kind of know who you are. Like, we can’t be the team to throw the bats and balls out there and think we’re going to win, we’re going to have to scrap our ass off. That’s okay. I kind of enjoy that, but as long as we know who we are, we’ll be okay.”
Francona is very fond of two words – right way – when delivering messages about how he wants his club to play. How many times did he mention the words right way in his Wednesday delivery?
“I don’t know, because I lost track, but probably a lot,” Francona said.
His only other Opening Day in Cincinnati with the Reds came in 1987, when he went 2-for-4 with a two-run homer in a nine-run fourth inning as the Reds beat the Montreal Expos, 11-5, at Riverfront Stadium.
Francona’s first lineup as skipper featured Gavin Lux in left field, a spot he played just 36 games in his career before Thursday.
Friedl CF
McLain 2B
De La Cruz SS
Lux LF
Candelario 3B
Steer DH
CES 1B
Fraley RF
Trevino C
Lux was slotted in left as a left-handed bat to oppose San Francisco’s righty Logan Webb. Lux is the fifth outfield option with the Reds but Francona wanted the veteran in there over Jacob Hurtubise and Blake Dunn, two outfielders who made their first Opening Day rosters because of the left calf strain Austin Hays suffered at the end of camp.
Carson Spiers and Andrew Abbott were back in Arizona Thursday getting their throwing in. Spiers is on the active roster and will be the club’s fifth starter while Abbott opens on the 15-day injured list strengthening his left shoulder.
McLain back:
Matt McLain returned to action Thursday for the first time in a Major League game since Aug. 27, 2023.
“Super excited. The butterflies are back. You miss those as a competitor, so I’m just looking forward to getting out there and competing with the boys,” McLain said before Thursday’s game.
“There were some hurdles. Obviously, when you don’t play (but) I played in the fall League, but just missing that much time. There’s some hurdles, some mental hurdles, physical hurdles. So I clear them all. I’m ready to go.”
There’s been plenty of talk about whether McLain can pick up from where he left off in 2023, when he slashed to a .290/.357/.507 mark in 89 games with the Reds. But McLain knows every year starts from scratch. What you did in your last game or at-bat doesn’t matter, let alone what you did 18 months ago.
“Yeah, for sure. Every year is from zero, you know, good year, bad year, injury last year,” McLain said. “It’s a blank page right now, and if you don’t look at it like that, you kind of pass up the opportunity to to take care of the day in front of you, and then that’s when you look back and you’re like, ‘Oh, I had a good year. I took care of each day one by one, and go day by day.’ And that’s all you can do as a baseball player.”
McLain has been assigned Jonathan India’s old locker in the corner next to catcher Jose Trevino.
“I think Friedl was going to text a picture, just messing around,” McLain said with a grin.
