Cincinnati Reds Fireballer Passes Stephen Strasburg on Impressive List in Record Books

Hunter Greene dazzled in historic fashion on Tuesday night as the Reds beat the Cardinals in a National League Central battle.

Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Hunter Greene (21) throws against the Miami Marlins in the first inning at loanDepot Park on Aug 8. / Jim Rassol-USA TODAY Sports

The Cincinnati Reds, one of the most disappointing teams in all of baseball, are making a last-ditch charge here in 2024.

With a 4-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday, the Reds are now 59-61 on the year. While two games under .500 doesn't seem all that impressive, this year, it's just 4.5 games back of the third and final wild card spot in the National League. Though there are four teams to jump to get into that spot, the opportunity still exists for Cincinnati to make the playoffs for the first time since the COVID 2020 season.

Starting pitcher Hunter Greene dominated for Cincinnati on Tuesday, going 7.0 innings and allowing just one run on four hits. He walked one and struck out eight. Greene is now 9-4 with a 2.83 ERA on the season. Furthermore, with his eight strikeouts, he passed Stephen Strasburg for the seventh-most strikeouts through a pitcher's first 70 games in baseball history.

Only Dwight Gooden (571), Jose Fernandez (540), Hideo Nomo (536), Mark Prior (531), Kerry Wood (530) and Tim Lincecum (510) have more than Greene's 473 through 70 games.

Starting in his @Reds meeting against the Cardinals, Hunter Greene sits at 154 strikeouts through 23 outings in 2024 (with 38 coming over his last 5 alone). Owning 470 overall in his career, he can move into 7th on this list of National Leaguers if he collects at least 6 tonight pic.twitter.com/7iZ2HIjcrE

— StatsCentre (@StatsCentre) August 13, 2024

The Reds and Cardinals will battle again on Wednesday night with first pitch coming at 6:40 p.m. ET. Kyle Gibson will get the ball for the Cardinals while reliever Emilio Pagan will open for the Reds.

The veteran Gibson is 7-4 this season with a 3.99 ERA while Pagan is 2-3 with a 4.22.

The Cardinals enter play at 60-60 overall. They are one game ahead of the Reds.

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