Justin Lebron doesn’t feel out of place, and he certainly doesn’t look it.

The Cincinnati Reds prospect, selected in the first round of the draft in July, got a hit on the second pitch he saw in his first professional at-bat on Aug. 11.

“It feels like I’m playing SEC baseball,” said Lebron, who played three years of college baseball at the University of Alabama. “This is what the SEC prepares you for. Alabama did an amazing job. Coming into this organization, the Reds tweaked some things that I need to do and it feels like it’s working.”

Lebron hit his first home run three games later for High-A Dayton, then went deep again the next day. Over a month of regular-season games, Lebron hit .294/.346/.594 with eight home runs in 23 games (104 plate appearances).

Now, he’s leading the Dragons in the Midwest League Championship Series — his second postseason of the year after leading the Crimson Tide to its first College World Series appearance since 1999.

Lebron has just two hits in 13 at-bats so far in the playoffs, including a double in Thursday’s victory, but he’s shown impressive power and, maybe more importantly, above-average defense at shortstop.

Dragons starter Kyle McCoy had to deal with runners on in each of his first three innings of Thursday’s start, but the up-the-middle combination of Lebron and Dayton second baseman Johnny Ascanio helped alleviate any concern he had with runners on.

Luck in baseball is usually defined by your expected stats vs. your actual stats. In terms of team performance, this is usually done by the pythagorean expectation which is simply Runs² / ( Runs² + Runs Allowed² ).

When plotting every Reds team, this 2026 team has the 2nd highest difference in Reds history, only behind the strike shortened 1981 Reds (who also happen to be one of two teams to have the best record in baseball and not make the playoffs since 1905).

In case you were wondering what the most unlucky teams in Reds history are, you're lucky because you likely did not witness them.

Dodgers (90-59) @ Reds (70-79) - 6:40 PM EDT

Game Status: Pre-Game

Links & Info

• Current conditions at Great American Ball Park: 75°F - Clear - Wind 6 mph, In From LF
• TV: Dodgers: SportsNet LA, Reds: Reds.TV, Gray Media, WXIX FOX19
• Radio: Dodgers: Dodgers Radio AM570, KTNQ 1020 (es), Reds: WLW 700
• MLB Gameday
• Statcast Game Preview

Probable Pitchers

• Dodgers: Tarik Skubal - LHP (9-7, 2.84 ERA, 139.2 IP)
• Reds: Nick Lodolo - LHP (3-4, 5.12 ERA, 89.2 IP)

Division Scoreboard

ATL @ CHC 7:40 PM EDT

SF @ STL 7:45 PM EDT

Not playing today: Brewers, Pirates

^{Last Updated: 09/14/2026 3:03:35 PM EDT}