The Cincinnati Reds' 1988 season marked the last of four consecutive winning seasons for the Reds, all of which resulted in second place finishes in the National League West. Led by manager Pete Rose, the Reds finished with the best record of these four seasons at 87 wins and 74 losses, but finished seven games back of the eventual World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. The 1988 season would be Pete Rose's last full season as Reds manager.

Thomas Leo Browning was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played from 1984 to 1995, spending almost his entire career with the Cincinnati Reds. In his rookie season in 1985, Browning won 20 games and was runner-up for the National League (NL) Rookie of the Year Award; he was the Reds' first 20-game winner in 15 years, and equalled the most wins by a Cincinnati lefthander since 1925. He quickly became a mainstay in the team's pitching rotation, leading the NL in games started four of the next five years. Browning pitched the twelfth perfect game in major league history on September 16, 1988, against the Los Angeles Dodgers, just the third perfect game by a lefthander; it was the highlight of a season in which he was 18–5, posting the league's second-highest winning percentage. He helped the Reds to a sweep in the 1990 World Series, winning Game 3 against the defending champion Oakland Athletics. In 1991, his last full season, Browning was named to the NL All-Star team.