Matt McLain To Make First Start At New Position Against Brewers
Matt McLain To Make First Start At New Position Against Brewers
This is a big change. Ricky Logan|
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Cincinnati RedsThe Cincinnati Reds are making a change defensively prior to Wednesday's game against the Milwaukee Brewers. Matt McLain is making his first start in a new position.
Center Fielder Matt McLain
McLain is making his first career start in center field on Wednesday. He will be batting eighth. McLain played his first innings at the position in Tuesday's loss to Milwaukee in the eighth inning after he pinch-hit for TJ Friedl in the top of the inning.
The Reds are in a peculiar spot. With Dane Myers going on the injured list after crashing hard into the center field wall after making a spectacular catch, the Reds are sparse in outfield depth. They promoted utility man Ivan Johnson from Triple-A on Tuesday, but he mostly plays the corner outfield and second base. He is making his first big league start in left field on Wednesday.
“I told him, ‘I don’t know where this is going. Nobody has a crystal ball,’ “ Francona told Gordon Wittenmyer. “But I said it wouldn’t hurt, because I know he’s done it. I said, ‘Just have some fun with it.’ “
With Edwin Arroyo still on the active roster and playing well in recent weeks, McLain's history with the position is an advantage, giving them the ability to play both Arroyo and McLain and there not being too much of a drop-off in the infield. McLain has been one of the better second basemen since he made his debut. This season, he is plus two outs above average with league-average arm strength. His sprint speed will be an upgrade over Friedl; he's in the 84th percentile in sprint speed this season.
Was This The Right Move?
The Reds did have a couple of possible options to play center field. The organization’s fifth-ranked prospect, Hector Rodriguez, has been excellent this season and has played center field, but is not a great defender. He has played more in the corner outfield in recent years. The Reds signed Michael Toglia to a minor league contract over the offseason, and he can play the outfield, but has played primarily at first base in Triple-A. Will Benson has the ability to play center field and has made some good plays at the position, but he was recently optioned down to Triple-A. Reds manager Terry Francona spoke about McLain playing the position after Tuesday's game.
"You're always trying to do something positive when it's not going great." Francona said. "He got out there and we got an at-bat for Ivan."
The team is currently without Blake Dunn and Myers, with both of them currently on the IL. Dunn injured his elbow last Friday in Pittsburgh. McLain played a lot of center field in college at UCLA and played some in the Arizona Fall League in 2024 after returning from shoulder surgery.
The Reds have lost three straight games and six out of their last 10 games. They sit in last place in the National League Central, 13 1/3 games behind the Brewers.
Wednesday Night Baseball on ESPN.
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) July 1, 2026
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Published 2 minutes ago
RICKY LOGANRicky Logan is a California native, originally from Yuba City, now living in the greater Cincinnati area with his wife and kids. He’s the co-host and producer of the Red Hot Reds Podcast on YouTube and other social platforms, where he brings commentary and passionate coverage of Cincinnati Reds baseball. He co-hosts the Chatterbox Reds Pregame Show for Chatterbox Sports on YouTube to give pregame analysis for upcoming games and has appeared on various Chatterbox Sports shows. Ricky also serves as an editor and writer for WeLikeSportzPC and recently joined the writing team at Chatterbox Sports covering Reds Minor League Baseball, continuing to grow his presence in the world of sports media.
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Meet Melat Kiros, the Ethiopian-born anti-Israel socialist crusader who is DSA’s rising star after stunning upset in Colorado
Meet Melat Kiros, the Ethiopian-born anti-Israel socialist crusader who is DSA's rising star after stunning upset in Colorado- US News
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Politics
Meet Melat Kiros, the Ethiopian-born anti-Israel socialist crusader who is DSA’s rising star after stunning upset in Colorado
By Ryan King Published July 1, 2026, 2:06 p.m. ETSee more of our coverage in your search results.
Add The New York Post on GoogleWASHINGTON — Democratic socialism is spreading West.
Political newcomer Melat Kiros, 29, who took down 15-term Democratic incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Col.) in a stunning primary upset Tuesday, is riding a wave of anti-Israel and anti-ICE sentiment sweeping her party.
The Ethiopian-born PhD student has pushed to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), suggested that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks were “inevitable,” downplayed suggestions that a firebombing of a Jewish rally was an act of antisemitism, and more.
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Once in the House of Representatives, which is considered likely because she’s in a safe blue district, Kiros has vowed to push Democrats as far left as possible and to oppose Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) becoming speaker.
Political awakening
Kiros refined many of her far-left views in law school at Notre Dame in the early 2020s, a period she describes as her political awakening, as the country was roiled by the COVID-19 pandemic and peak wokeness.
“I literally watched the Federalist Society handpicking some of my classmates onto the judge track in their decades-long bid to pack the courts,” she complained, according to Vox. “…I just lost faith in the system; I think a lot of young people did.”
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After law school in 2022, she joined the law firm Sidley Austin in New York, where she worked as a regulatory and enforcement associate. The following year, she was fired for writing a viral open letter lambasting law firms for pushing to crack down on antisemitism on college campuses.
“By chilling future lawyers’ employment prospects for criticism of the Israeli government’s actions and its legitimacy, you are complicit in Israel’s weaponization of anti-Semitism against legitimate concerns for the right of self-determination and the livelihood of the Palestinian people,” she wrote in the missive.
Sidley Austin demanded she take the letter down, but Kiros claims she refused and was fired as a result.
“I didn’t flinch because I stood by every word and I always will,” she boasted during her victory speech Tuesday.
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That move drew headlines and boosted her name recognition in lefty circles.
After losing her law gig, Kiros moved back to Colorado, where her family had immigrated while she was just 11-months-old. Her father had been picked in America’s Diversity Visa Lottery, per her campaign website.
Back home, she enrolled in a PhD program in public policy and worked as a barista.
Then, in the middle of last year, she decided to launch a seemingly long-shot primary challenge against DeGette, who is widely considered to be a very progressive lawmaker and has served in Congress longer than Kiros has been alive.
DeGette had the backing of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
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But Kiros’ candidacy caught fire with the DSA and other lefty groups that were hunting for candidates to take on incumbent Democrats and push the party further leftwards.
One of the major differences between the two was Kiros’ tougher stance against Israel. DeGette faced grassroots pushback for supporting defensive aid to Israel.
Kiros, however, made tough talk against the Jewish state a feature of her campaign.
For example, she told notorious lefty streamer Hasan Piker that the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack was an “inevitable consequence of apartheid,” though she later clarified she wasn’t trying to say it was justified.
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Piker is a very controversial streamer, having declared that “America deserved 9/11″ and praised the “brave mujahideen” who injured Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas).
In a similar vein, she told 9News journalist Kyle Clark that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were an “inevitable consequence” of US foreign policy.
Kiros has stirred local controversy for downplaying the role of antisemitism in the June 1, 2025, firebombing attack at a weekly Jewish gathering aimed at bringing attention to the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas. One person was killed and a dozen were injured in that attack.
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The attacker, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, screamed “Free Palestine” before later stating that he “wanted to kill all Zionist people,” according to the FBI.
Kiros repeatedly declined to call it antisemitism and told NOTUS that it wasn’t “entirely obvious that it was just motivated by antisemitism.”
Many of her positions are similar to those of other DSA members, including support for Medicare for All, a modified Green New Deal, and mass amnesty. Kiros also wants a 10% slash in Pentagon spending.
“People are seeing that capitalism is responsible for a lot of the degradation that we’re seeing in our economy, that we’re seeing in our democracy, that we’re certainly seeing in our climate as well,” she claimed in a recent interview.
“They’re demanding a new way to organize our economy.”
Should she win in November, she will be the first Gen. Z woman to serve in Congress and the second Zoomer overall, after Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.)
She is riding a socialist revolt within the Democratic Party, as far-left candidates have won primaries across New York, Maine, Illinois, and elsewhere heading into the midterms.
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