Brandon Williamson is set to start for the Reds against the Twins on April 17, bringing a local twist to a game between two teams that entered the day at 11-8. Williamson, a 28-year-old left-hander born in Fairmont, Minnesota, is scheduled to take the mound in his home state as Cincinnati tries to keep pace in an early-season race that has both clubs looking more alike than different.
The Reds came in at 11-8 after finishing 83-79 last year and then getting swept in the wildcard round. The Twins were also 11-8, and both clubs are chasing something that has eluded them for years: Minnesota has not won a divisional series since 2002, while Cincinnati has not won one since 1995. The Reds last reached Game 5 of the 2012 NLDS, a reminder of how thin the margin has been for a franchise that has spent much of the last decade trying to get back to that stage.
Williamson’s path to this start has been shaped by injuries. He spent much of 2024 and 2025 on the injured list, but when healthy he brings a mix that the Reds think can work: a low-90s fastball and cutter, plus a changeup against right-handed hitters and a slider-sweeper against left-handers. His offspeed pitches are considered his best weapons, which gives Cincinnati a different look than the power arms that usually define April starts. Fairmont, his hometown, is a south-central Minnesota town with about 10,000 residents, so the setting gives him something of a homecoming in front of a crowd that knows exactly where he came from.
The Twins, meanwhile, are trying to steady a staff that took a hit when Simeon Woods Richardson had a fourth-inning meltdown last Friday after manager Derek Shelton said he had been throwing up pregame. Shelton said they hoped to get more out of him, but by the third inning he was not in a great spot and appeared to run out of gas. Cody Laweryson is now headed to the 15-day injured list, a reminder that the bullpen has already been asked to absorb more than it wants this early in the season.
For Minnesota, the game also comes with the usual pressure that follows every uneven stretch, especially after Tom Pohlad called a fan wearing a “Sell The Team” hat classless at Sunday’s game. For Cincinnati, the night offers a chance to lean on a young pitcher who was born nearby and to keep the momentum of a 11-8 start alive. The Reds have a long history in this ballpark and, in one of the stranger footnotes in franchise history, management once sent a pitcher with a sore arm to the dentist in 1972, where teeth were pulled in an attempt to fix it. That was another era entirely, but it speaks to how long both clubs have been searching for the same thing: a stretch that finally lasts.
If Williamson gives the Reds length and the Twins keep losing bodies, April 17 could be remembered less for the standings than for the night a Minnesota-born pitcher returned home and helped decide which 11-8 team looked more ready for the season ahead.
