Reds Beat: ‘Can’t Kill Us’ Club Ready To Take On MLB Postseason, Seek First Playoff Series Win in 30 Years

No team is bringing more juice, more energy, more mojo, more belief in themselves than the Cincinnati Reds.

Is that to say they’re more talented than the Brewers, Phillies, Dodgers, Mariners, Yankees or Red Sox? No. But none of those teams defied the odds more than the Reds did in the final three weeks of the season. The Reds were six games out of the Wild Card when they couldn’t score with the bases loaded with none out in the ninth and lost 5-4 to the Mets at Great American Ball Park. They were swept by the last-place A’s in Sacramento. They lost two-of-three to the Pirates at home, including a gut-wrenching 4-3 game in 11 innings on Wednesday night when they had multiple chances to win late.

Still, they found a way to win two of three in Milwaukee with the season on the line and they’re headed back to the playoffs in the first year under manager Terry Francona.

“Everybody in this room, everybody in this room, we’ve been through more shit and they can’t (effing) kill us,” Francona told the club moments after the final out in Miami punched their ticket for a best-of-three series in Los Angeles starting Tuesday. The team then obliterated the 66-year-old skipper with a champagne shower.

This is a manager who has been through this numerous times before, including in 2004, when in his first year of managing the Red Sox included jump-starting a team in August that managed to make the playoffs as a wild card. That team was more experience and more talented but mojo is the same.

It’s a college frat party. And that’s ok. As a matter of fact, Francona knows it can be the secret sauce that keeps a team loose under pressure.

That 2004 Red Sox team became the “Cowboy Up” crew of Kevin Millar that drank a shot before Games 6 and 7 at Yankee Stadium before completing the historic comeback from three games down to the Yankees in the ALCS. That was the team that Millar famously said, “don’t let us win tonight,” before Game 4 with the Yankees on the verge of a sweep.

This Reds team has that same energy with the same manager.

Jordyn Pagan was seen riding the new mascot of these 2025 Reds, a cockroach on the warning track in front of the Reds dugout after Sunday’s 4-2 loss to the Brewers that became irrelevant with the Mets loss in Miami. TJ Friedl went over to the Reds social media crew and made sure they captured the moment.

“We wanted this. We’re going to go on a journey,” said Brent Suter. “This is step one of all our goals. We freakin’ did it, man. We did it. You can’t kill the Reds. You can’t kill the Reds.”

Suter also broke into an unbelievably good Terry Francona impersonation in the clubhouse where everyone was doused in champagne and beer.

The team that can’t be killed is ready to take no prisoners starting Tuesday night in Los Angeles. It’ll be Hunter Greene on the mound in his hometown hoping to lead the Reds in a moment that could change the direction of this franchise, at least for these playoffs. A dominant outing could put the Reds one win away from capturing their first playoff series win in 30 years. Ironically, in 1995 the Dodgers were the team the Reds dispatched three games to none, starting with two wins at Dodger Stadium.

This year, the Reds could repeat history with just two wins that would put them on a track to face the Phillies in the NLDS starting Saturday in Philadelphia.

The Reds have so many fresh faces that are making their playoff debut, including rookies Sal Stewart and Chase Burns. Then there’s the likes of TJ Friedl, Tyler Stephenson, Chase Burns, Andrew Abbott, Connor Phillips, Nick Lodolo and of course, Game 1 starter Greene.

The Reds are taking on the defending World Series champion Dodgers with loads and loads of postseason experience. The Reds wouldn’t want it any other way. This Reds team has met every single challenge since falling behind six games in the Wild Card hunt on Sept. 5. As Suter said, this isn’t a destination, it’s the start of a journey that the Reds and their faithful have waited 30 years for.

There was the disappointment of the one-game playoff loss at home to the Mets in 1999, the playoff sweep at the hands of the Phillies in 2010, the choke in 2012 when it appeared the Reds were ready to move on past the Giants. The time in 2013 when Johnny Cueto, rattled by Pirates fans, dropped the ball on the mound. And then there was 2020 when they failed to score a run in 22 innings in two losses to the Braves.

The energy with this club feels different. Time to see if it translates to postseason and see if that journey is longer than just one series.