The 1994 Cincinnati Reds season was the 125th season for the franchise in Major League Baseball, and their 25th and 24th full season at Riverfront Stadium. The team moved to the new National League Central in the 1994 season. They were leading the division by a half game before a strike ended the 1994 Major League Baseball season in mid-August.
Offseason November 2, 1993: Dan Wilson and Bobby Ayala were traded by the Reds to the Seattle Mariners for Bret Boone and Erik Hanson.Bret Boone Bret Boone page at Baseball Reference November 4, 1993: Jerome Walton was signed as a free agent by the Reds.Jerome Walton page at Baseball Reference November 23, 1993: Steve Lake was signed as a free agent by the Reds.Steve Lake page at Baseball Reference November 24, 1993: Casey Candaele was signed as a free agent by the Reds.Casey Candaele page at Baseball Reference March 8, 1994: Tony Fernández was signed as a free agent by the Reds.Tony Fernández page at Baseball Reference
Regular season For the first time, the Opening Day game was moved to Sunday night as part of ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball. Up to that point, traditionally Opening Day was held on a Monday, with the Reds customarily hosting the first game of the afternoon. The move was met with some controversy, as many fans and traditionalists, including Reds owner Marge Schott, were not happy about the Sunday night game, especially since it was also Easter Sunday. Many tickets for the Sunday night game went unsold, and the team elected to wait until Monday afternoon's game for the traditional Opening Day pageantry and festivities. A sparse crowd of only 32,803 braved frigid weather Sunday night April 3 to watch the Reds lose 6–4 to the St. Louis Cardinals.
For Game 2 on Monday April 4, dubbed by most in attendance the "traditional" opening day, a sold out, standing room only crowd of 55,093 arrived at Riverfront Stadium, shrugging off the previous night's game. The pomp and ceremony, including the traditional Findlay Market parade was held under sunny skies. Kevin Mitchell hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 10th inning to win the game 5–4.
By Friday, August 12, the Reds had compiled a 66–48 record through 114 games (although they had actually played 115 games, since their April 6 game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Riverfront Stadium ended tied 8–8 after the top of the 6th inning due to poor weather). They were leading the NL Central Division by just half a game over the Houston Astros. Prior to the strike, they had scored 609 runs (5.30 per game) and had allowed 490 runs (4.26 per game).
Game log
| 1 || April 3 || Cardinals |- | 2 || April 4 || Cardinals |- | 3 || April 6 || Cardinals |- | 4 || April 8 || Phillies |- | 5 || April 9 || Phillies |- | 6 || April 10 || Phillies |- style="text-align:center; background:#bfb;" | 7 || April 11 || @ Expos || 9-4 (11 inn.) || Carrasco (3–0) || Heredia (0–1) || || 12,526 || 5-1-1 || Boxscore |- style="text-align:center; background:#bfb;" | 8 || April 12 || @ Expos || 7-1 || Pugh (1–0) || Boucher (0–1) || || 12,466 || 6-1-1 || Boxscore |- style="text-align:center; background:#fbb;" | 9 || April 13 || @ Expos || 2-3 || Wetteland (1-1) || McElroy (0–1) || || 14,072 || 6-2-1 || Boxscore |- | 10 || April 15 || @ Phillies |- | 11 || April 16 || @ Phillies |- | 12 || April 17 || @ Phillies |- | 13 || April 19 || Pirates |- | 14 || April 20 || Pirates |- | 15 || April 22 || Marlins |- | 16 || April 23 || Marlins |- | 17 || April 24 || Marlins |- | 18 || April 25 || Cubs |- | 19 || April 26 || Cubs |- | 20 || April 27 || @ Pirates |- | 21 || April 28 || @ Pirates |- | 22 || April 29 || @ Marlins |- | 23 || April 30 || @ Marlins
| 24 || May 1 || @ Marlins |- | 25 || May 2 || @ Cubs |- | 26 || May 3 || @ Cubs |- | 27 || May 4 || @ Cubs |- | 28 || May 5 || Astros |- | 29 || May 6 || Astros |- | 30 || May 7 || Astros |- | 31 || May 8 || Astros |- | 32 || May 9 || @ Padres |- | 33 || May 10 || @ Padres |- | 34 || May 11 || @ Padres |- | 35 || May 13 || @ Giants |- | 36 || May 14 || @ Giants |- | 37 || May 15 || @ Giants |- | 38 || May 17 || Braves |- | 39 || May 18 || Braves |- | 40 || May 19 || Braves |- | 41 || May 20 || Dodgers |- | 42 || May 21 || Dodgers |- | 43 || May 22 || Dodgers |- | 44 || May 23 || @ Rockies |- | 45 || May 24 || @ Rockies |- | 46 || May 25 || @ Rockies |- | 47 || May 26 || @ Rockies |- | 48 || May 27 || @ Mets |- | 49 || May 28 || @ Mets |- | 50 || May 29 || @ Mets |- style="text-align:center; background:#bfb;" | 51 || May 30 || Expos || 7-3 || Rijo (3-3) || Hill (8–3) || || 27,875 || 28-22-1 || Boxscore |- style="text-align:center; background:#bfb;" | 52 || May 31 || Expos || 5-4 (13 inn.) || Schourek (3–0) || Shaw (2-2) || || 25,046 || 29-22-1 || Boxscore
|- style="text-align:center; background:#fbb;" | 53 || June 1 || Expos || 9-10 || Scott (3–2) || Carrasco (3–2) || Martínez (1) || 23,653 || 29-23-1 || Boxscore |- | 54 || June 3 || Mets |- | 55 || June 4 || Mets |- | 56 || June 5 || Mets |- | 57 || June 7 || @ Cardinals |- | 58 || June 8 || @ Cardinals |- | 59 || June 9 || Rockies |- | 60 || June 10 || Rockies |- | 61 || June 11 || Rockies |- | 62 || June 12 || Rockies |- | 63 || June 13 || @ Dodgers |- | 64 || June 14 || @ Dodgers |- | 65 || June 15 || @ Dodgers |- | 66 || June 17 || @ Braves |- | 67 || June 18 || @ Braves |- | 68 || June 19 || @ Braves |- | 69 || June 21 || Giants |- | 70 || June 22 || Giants |- | 71 || June 23 || Giants |- | 72 || June 24 || Padres |- | 73 || June 25 || Padres |- | 74 || June 26 || Padres |- | 75 || June 27 || @ Astros |- | 76 || June 28 || @ Astros |- | 77 || June 29 || @ Astros |- | 78 || June 30 || @ Pirates
| 79 || July 1 || @ Pirates |- | 80 || July 2 || @ Pirates |- | 81 || July 3 || @ Pirates |- | 82 || July 4 || @ Marlins |- | 83 || July 5 || @ Marlins |- | 84 || July 6 || @ Marlins |- | 85 || July 7 || Pirates |- | 86 || July 8 || Pirates |- | 87 || July 9 || Pirates |- | 88 || July 10 || Pirates |- style="text-align:center; background:#bbcaff;" |align="center" colspan="10"|All-Star Break: NL def. AL at Three Rivers Stadium, 8–7 (10) |- | 89 || July 14 || Cubs |- | 90 || July 15 || Cubs |- | 91 || July 16 || Cubs |- | 92 || July 17 || Cubs |- | 93 || July 18 || Marlins |- | 94 || July 19 || Marlins |- | 95 || July 20 || Marlins |- | 96 || July 22 || @ Cubs |- | 97 || July 23 || @ Cubs |- | 98 || July 24 || @ Cubs |- | 99 || July 25 || Astros |- | 100 || July 26 || Astros |- | 101 || July 27 || Astros |- | 102 || July 28 || @ Padres |- | 103 || July 29 || @ Padres |- | 104 || July 30 || @ Padres |- | 105 || July 31 || @ Padres
| 106 || August 1 || @ Giants |- | 107 || August 2 || @ Giants |- | 108 || August 3 || @ Giants |- | 109 || August 5 || Braves |- | 110 || August 6 || Braves |- | 111 || August 7 || Braves |- | 112 || August 8 || Braves |- | 113 || August 9 || Dodgers |- | 114 || August 10 || Dodgers |- | 115 || August 11 || Dodgers
Legend Reds win Reds loss All-Star Game Game postponed
Season standings
Record vs. opponents
Notable transactions May 27, 1994: Kevin Maas was signed as a free agent by the Reds.Kevin Maas page at Baseball Reference May 29, 1994: Roberto Kelly and Roger Etheridge (minors) were traded by the Reds to the Atlanta Braves for Deion Sanders.Deion Sanders page at Baseball Reference
Roster 1994 Cincinnati Reds Roster Pitchers Catchers
Infielders Outfielders Manager
Coaches
(first base)
Player stats
Batting
Starters by position Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI C Brian Dorsett 76 216 53 .245 5 26 1B Hal Morris 112 436 146 .335 10 78 2B Bret Boone 108 381 122 .320 12 68 SS Barry Larkin 110 427 119 .279 9 52 3B Tony Fernández 104 366 102 .279 8 50 LF Kevin Mitchell 95 310 101 .326 30 77 CF Roberto Kelly 47 179 54 .302 3 21 RF Reggie Sanders 107 400 105 .263 17 62
Other batters Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI Deion Sanders 46 184 51 .277 0 7 Thomas Howard 83 178 47 .264 5 24 Ed Taubensee 61 177 52 .294 8 21 Jacob Brumfield 68 122 38 .311 4 11 Jeff Branson 58 109 31 .284 6 16 Lenny Harris 66 100 31 .310 0 14 Jerome Walton 46 68 21 .309 1 9 Willie Greene 16 37 8 .216 0 3 Brian Hunter 9 23 7 .304 4 10 Joe Oliver 6 19 4 .211 1 5 Steve Pegues 11 10 3 .300 0 0
Pitching
Starting pitchers Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts Player G IP W L ERA SO José Rijo 26 172.1 9 6 3.08 171 John Smiley 24 158.2 11 10 3.86 112 Erik Hanson 22 122.2 5 5 4.11 101 John Roper 16 92.0 6 2 4.50 51 Tim Pugh 10 47.2 3 3 6.04 24 Tom Browning 7 40.2 3 1 4.20 22
Other pitchers Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts Player G IP W L ERA SO Pete Schourek 22 81.1 7 2 4.09 69 Kevin Jarvis 6 17.2 1 1 7.13 10
Relief pitchers Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts Player G W L SV ERA SO Jeff Brantley 50 6 6 15 2.48 63 Chuck McElroy 52 1 2 5 2.34 38 Johnny Ruffin 51 7 2 1 3.09 44 Hector Carrasco 45 5 6 6 2.24 41 Tim Fortugno 25 1 0 0 4.20 29 Rich DeLucia 8 0 0 0 4.22 15 Jerry Spradlin 6 0 0 0 10.13 4 Scott Service 6 1 2 0 7.36 5
Farm system
LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Indianapolis, Princeton, BillingsJohnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007
References
1994 Cincinnati Reds season at Baseball Reference 1994 Cincinnati Reds season at Baseball Almanac