Hunter Greene strikes out 12 Cubs as Reds shutout NL Central rivals

Hunter Greene spent over three months on the shelf following his March surgery to cleanup loose bodies in his prized right elbow. Safe to say, when he returned for his season debut last weekend, things went about as poorly as they could have possibly gone.

On Friday, though, the Reds officially got their ace back.

Greene struck out 12 in 7.0 scoreless, brilliant innings against the Chicago Cubs in the series opener in Great American Ball Park, and did so while yielding just 3 hits and a lone walk. He routinely topped 100 mph on the radar gun on a hot night at the park, and there was never a moment when he was on the mound where he looked anything other than one of the best pitchers on the planet once again.

If that’s what the Reds get back for the last half of the season, well, there’s at least a chance they can miraculously pick themselves up off the mat.

Elly De La Cruz socked yet another homer from the right side of the plate, Sal Stewart had a pair of hits (and another ribbie), and JJ Bleday provided the back-breaker with a 2-run homer off Jake Woodford in the 8th inning to give Cincinnati a thorough 4-0 victory in the opener of the final series before the All Star break.

(Elly tripled, too, and Sal plated him with a sac fly. That’s a cool part of the order, I say!)

It was Cincinnati’s first win against the Cubs this season after having dropped each of the first four against their division rivals. Emilio Pagan provided a rare stress-free save for Cincinnati as the nail in the coffin tonight.

Nick Lodolo will attempt to lead the Reds to another win on Saturday in his start opposite righty Javier Assad, with first pitch set for 7:10 PM ET once again.