Cincinnati Reds schedule: Detroit Tigers rumored to be first opponent

It’s rumored the Cincinnati Reds will open the season against the Detroit Tigers.

While the official 2020 Major League Baseball schedule will be released later this evening, according to Detroit manager Ron Gardenhire, it appears his Tigers will face the Reds in Cincinnati to open the season.

This season will be quite different from what most fans are used. The coronavirus pandemic put a halt to spring training back in March and the 2020 season is set to begin around the end of July. The Cincinnati Reds have been practicing this past week at both Great American Ball Park and Prasco Park in Mason, Ohio.

Teams will only play nine opponents this season, four of which are division rivals. The Cincinnati Reds will still play the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee Brewers and Pittsburgh Pirates. But, the Reds will also face off against teams in the AL Central. Those teams are the Tigers, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Royals and Minnesota Twins.

Gardenhire: "I think we maybe open in Cincinnati or somewhere like that, which is kinda cool. And that's a guess, because I saw one that said we didn't open in Cincinnati. But I think we do, so I'm hoping we do. I'm gonna drive there."
— Cody Stavenhagen (@CodyStavenhagen) July 6, 2020

If Gardenhire is right, then the tradition of the Reds opening the season at home will continue. It was long since a tradition in the Queen City for baseball’s first professional franchise to open the season, but lately the league has opened to a nationwide audience in primetime. That’s likely to happen this year as well

It’s been rumored that the New York Yankees will play the World Series Champion Washington Nationals on July 23rd, and the San Francisco Giants will also go head-to-head with their division rival, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

If the Reds do indeed play host to the Tigers to being the 2020 season, both Eugenio Suárez and Nick Castellanos will be suiting up against their former team. Suárez was traded to the Reds in 2014 in exchange for Alfredo Simon. Castellanos signed with Cincinnati this offseason after playing the first seven years of his career in the Motor City.

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Both Suárez and Castellanos will be counted on heavily to boost last year’s No. 12 ranked offense in the National League. Regardless of who Cincinnati begins the season against, this year’s team must avoid the slow starts that the Reds fell victim to in 2018 and 2019.

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