San Francisco Giants vs Cincinnati Reds Prediction & Match Preview - May 28th

The San Francisco Giants play the Cincinnati Reds for the second game of their three-game series. At the time of writing, both teams are coming off wins. The Giants won in dominant fashion against the New York Mets, 9-3. While the Reds, on the other hand, slipped past the Chicago Cubs 4-3.

San Francisco currently has a 24-19 record while Cincinnati is at 13-30. Alex Wood has been selected to start opposite Reds starter Vladimir Gutierrez. After a few hiccups in the past few weeks, the Giants seem rejuvenated and ready to reclaim their National League West position. The Reds, on the other hand, have a few wins every other few games and are gearing up for a rebuild this season.

Match Details

Fixture: San Francisco Giants vs Cincinnati Reds.

Date & Time: Saturday, May 28, 4:10 PM EDT.

Venue: Great American Ballpark, Cincinnati, Ohio.

San Francisco Giants Preview

The San Francisco Giants are slowly making up for lost ground. After winning in exhilirating fashion against the Mets two nights ago, they followed it up by dominating them and handing them their second straight loss. Joc Pederson continued his hot streak by going one-out-of-two for the day with his only conversion coming in the way of a home run.

They now set their sights on a ten-game road trip that would see them clash against the Cincinnati Reds, the Philadelphia Phillies, and the Miami Marlins. It is of utter importance that the Giants haul as many wins as possible in this road trip for them to be able to chase the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West standings.

Key Player - Joc Pederson

San Francisco Giants outfielder Joc Pederson

Joc has homered again. You read that one right. After a three-run home run game two days ago, Pederson homered once again. This gave the outfielder a season stat line of 11 homers with 24 RBIs on 27 base hits. He also carries a slash line of .260/.331/.606 with an OPS of .937.

"That's FOUR homers in the last SIX at-bats for @yungjoc650 🥶 @SFGiants out to an early 5-0 lead on MLB Network 📺" - @ MLB Network

With momentum on his side and a relatively easy matchup against a faltering Cincinnati Reds pitching staff, expect Pederson to keep his hot streak going.

San Francisco Giants Projected Lineup

Starting Pitcher: Alex Wood.

Darin Ruf, DH
Wilmer Flores, 1B
Mike Yastrzemski, RF
Evan Longoria, 3B
Thairo Estrada, 2B
Joc Pederson, LF
Stuart Fairchild, CF
Joey Bart, C
Brandon Crawford, SS

Cincinnati Reds Preview

The Cincinnati Reds have managed to keep up a few wins almost once in every three games. They've just narrowly defeated the Chicago Cubs, a team that is also in a slump of their own. They rely heavily on their offense to deliver on the job as their pitching has been downright underwhelming this season.

Tyler Naquin, Brandon Drury, Colin Moran, and Tyler Stephenson are the only sources of offense from the team. The Giants' pitching staff has been inconsistent as of late, but if the aforementioned names don't click on offense, they will surely be overwhelmed and run out of the park by the Giants' offense.

Key Player - Tyler Stephenson

Cincinnati Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson

Young catcher Tyler Stephenson has been the steadiest bat in an otherwise anemic Cincinnati offense. He is batting .295/.358/.484 with an OPS of .842. He has four homers, six doubles and 21 RBIs on 28 base hits so far this season.

"A couple weeks ago, @Tyler_Step22 saw a kid wearing his jersey for the very first time. Yesterday, he got a chance to meet Preston and sign that same jersey ❤️" - @ Cincinnati Reds

If anyone can provide a spark for the Reds against a measly Giants pitching crew, it should be the young stud Tyler Stephenson.

Cincinnati Reds Projected Lineup

Starting Pitcher: Vladimir Gutierrez

Tyler Naquin, RF
Brandon Drury, 3B
Tyler Stephenson, C
Joey Votto, 1B
Tommy Pham, LF
Aristides Aquino, DH
Nick Senzel, CF
Kyle Farmer, SS
Matt Reynolds, 2B

San Francisco Giants vs Cincinnati Reds Prediction

This game should be pretty straightforward for the San Francisco Giants, especially now that they have the momentum having trounced the powerhouse New York Mets twice. Giants to win 5-1.

Where to follow Giants vs Reds?

Watch: NBCS BA (Giants), Bally Sports Ohio (Reds).

Listen: KNBR 680 (Giants), WLW 700 (Reds).

For more news and information, visit the Sportskeeda Baseball page.

About the author

Daniel Santiago is a journalist who has been reporting on baseball at Sportskeeda since 2022. He was drawn towards the sport after the underlying statistics and the analysis surrounding it grabbed his attention.

Daniel particularly enjoys furnishing reports about historic events in baseball and analyzing the game through a statistic-based outlook, based on Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference. This is in line with how he enjoyed watching baseball as a pastime. As a writer, he is very particular about cross-checking from reputable sources and doing his due diligence.

He became a lifelong Hideki Matsui fan after his exploits in the 2009 World Series for the New York Yankees. Among the current generation, Daniel's favorites include Shohei Ohtani and Jung Hoo Lee. Daniel is a huge follower of Asian baseball and both Ohtani and Lee have been in the top echelon of their respective leagues during their time with the NPB and KBO.

His favorite moment as a baseball fan was the final at-bat of the 2023 World Baseball Classic between Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. He believes there aren't many words to fittingly describe the intensity of the moment.

As an avid sports fan, Daniel watches other sports and Esports when not writing about baseball.

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Edited by Windy Goodloe

San Francisco Giants vs Cincinnati Reds Prediction & Match Preview - May 28th | MLB Season 2022