Reds Take Early Batting Practice

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Dateline: Cincinnati

The Reds took early batting practice on Saturday at noon.

Reds hitters have struggled with the exception of Sal Stewart, who is slashing .340/.458/.681. The Reds lineup on Saturday has five players with batting averages below .200.

From bottom to top, they are Ke'Bryan Hayes .088, Noelvi Marte .143, TJ Friedl .154, Tyler Stephenson .182 and Spencer Steer .182.

The Reds have won eight games by scoring only 41 runs, last in the Major Leagues. One of the reasons is the Reds hitting with runners-in-scoring position at a Major League low of .162, including 0 for the last 13. They were 0-for-10 on Thursday and 0-for-3 on Friday.

Still, batting woes, were not the reason for the early battting practice. "We have a 4:00 game today, we don't take batting practice on Sunday and we have on off day, Monday," manager Terry Francona explained.

It has been suggested that Francona, shake up the lineup and move batters around.

Francona rejected the idea. 

"You make the lineup out for a reason," Francona said. "If guys do what you think they can do, it makes sense. I've never been a fan of like lineup Bingo (picking names out of a hat). I think that leads to a lot of inconsistencies in everything. Like Friedl right now. Do I think Friedl is a good hitter? Yeah. Has he had a good first two weeks? No. So if you move him down to nine (somtime) he is going to get hot. Leave him where he is. If you move people, you have to move other people too. I always try to do what I think makes sense. I don't think bouncing people around makes sense."

"I told Steer he swung the bat really good," Francona said. "When you don't get rewarded for it, you want to do more. That's where you get in trouble. You hope he doesn't try to do more."

Matt McLain is on the bench for the first time this season. It was a planned day off with an off-day Monday.