The Cincinnati Reds' first meeting of 2026 with the St. Louis Cardinals was postponed on Friday, May 22 because of persistent and heavy rain in Cincinnati and rescheduled as part of a split doubleheader on Saturday, May 23.
The postponed reds game forced the club to rework a Saturday that already carried stakes: the make-up was set for 1:10 p.m. with Chris Paddack lined up to start, and the originally scheduled 7:15 p.m. game remained on the calendar with Chase Petty taking the mound after rejoining the team from Triple-A Louisville.
Eugenio Suárez returned from the injured list on Friday, May 23 after a strained left oblique, giving Cincinnati a veteran bat just as the compressed weekend arrived. Suárez missed half of the Reds' first 50 games, last played on April 22 and was hitting.231 with 21 hits and 11 RBIs before his return.
Meanwhile, Ke'Bryan Hayes was placed on the 10-day injured list retroactive to May 21 because of a lumbar bulging disc, a move that will send him back to the Player Development Complex in Goodyear, Arizona to continue healing and then work on hitting, manager Terry Francona said. Francona warned the club will be careful with Hayes: "We're gonna have to pick our spots a little early. We don't want to run him into the ground," and added, "He's always had (back) issues. I think the spasming has got to the point where it's kind of getting in the way." Hayes had appeared in 44 games this year and was hitting.142.
Francona also outlined the plan for easing players back into action. About Hayes he said, "He had two rehab games, and we told him that even before he went on his rehab. He'll probably play two-out-of-three this weekend... We'll have to balance all that. We're gonna probably have to do that with everybody anyway." The manager closed his assessment of Hayes with a hope for a reset: "So, hopefully, get that settled down and get him going again and almost let him, when I say 'a minute,' take a deep breath so we can get the real Hayes."
The scheduling shift creates immediate decisions on the mound. Paddack was set to start the 1:10 p.m. make-up game and Petty, who had one MLB start entering the weekend and was 0-0 with a 4.76 ERA, was to take the ball in the nationally broadcast 7:15 p.m. contest on FOX. The club also planned to distribute a bobblehead celebrating Hayes' 2025 NL third baseman Rawlings Gold Glove Award during the 7:15 p.m. game.
Context matters: this was the clubs' first meeting in 2026, and the Reds had already been managing interrupted availability — Suárez's oblique had cost him half of the first 50 games, and Hayes arrived in Cincinnati as a 2025 trade deadline pickup with a known history of back ailments. The split doubleheader that replaced Friday's rainout compresses those threads into one day.
The tension is clear. The team is handing minutes to a returning veteran while placing another starter on the injured list and celebrating him with a bobblehead on the same night. The doubleheader will test the Reds' depth and the judgment Francona signaled: where to give players a chance without running them into the ground.
The coming day will be a practical answer. With Paddack and Petty scheduled to start and Suárez back in the lineup, Cincinnati's handling of playing time this weekend — and how quickly Hayes can be eased back when he returns to game action — will show whether the club can protect its injured pieces and still compete over a condensed slate.
