The Cincinnati Reds made another round of lineup changes Thursday afternoon at Wrigley Field, with Rhett Lowder set to start against Shota Imanaga as they tried to salvage one game from a brutal series against the Chicago Cubs.
Elly De La Cruz made his first start at designated hitter, Matt McLain moved to shortstop and Sal Stewart handled second base in the 2:20 PM ET game. The reshuffling gave the Reds a different look, with the club still searching for a way to break through after a difficult run in Chicago.
That mattered because Thursday was the Reds’ last immediate chance to leave Wrigley with something to show for the trip, and they chose to change the shape of the lineup rather than stay with the same alignment. The move put De La Cruz in a different role and shifted McLain and Stewart into new spots, a sign the Reds were willing to alter the board rather than keep waiting for the same setup to work.
The tension for Cincinnati was simple: a lineup change can help on one afternoon, but it can also underline how little has gone right over the course of the series. Lowder had the assignment on the mound against Imanaga, and the Reds needed the changes to produce more than just a different card handed in before first pitch.
Blake Dunn was part of the larger roster picture around a club that had to make adjustments to get through the afternoon, and the Reds’ decisions at Wrigley showed a team still trying to find the right mix. If they were going to salvage the finale, it would have to come from the altered lineup, not the version that had already fallen behind in the series.
