Cincinnati Reds decide to give a day off to Zack Cozart and Drew Stubbs – MLB News
The Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday, July 31, decided to give a day off to the shortstop Zack Cozart and centre fielder Drew Stubbs for the game against the San Diego Padres. The reason why the team decided to opt for this decision was due to the upcoming tough stretch of the season.
This, beyond any shadow of doubt, remains one of the longest and toughest stretches in the second half of the season. The Reds are currently performing extraordinarily well and the players like Stubbs and Cozart have had a big role to play in it.
Although on Monday the Reds lost the game against Padres, which also snapped the winning streak, the Reds posed some real big challenges to the Padres in Tuesday’s game.
Stubbs, on the other hand, seemed happy with the decision to have a day off.
"It's nice to have some days of rest here or there," Stubbs said. "I understand that any time [Baker] feels the need to give us the day off when we've got a lot of games coming up, it's good to take it. In that case, we usually don't come take any extra swings. We normally just kind of get an actual day off."
The upcoming stretch of play shall require the Reds to play 53 games in 56 days. That is indeed quite tiring an experience coupled with the fact that the ongoing stretch is that of 17 consecutive games involving the Reds.
The team manager is well aware of it. It is for this reason that he would like to have the strongest of players to have some time off.
"This is the epitome of dog days in August," Baker said. "I'm going to have to give some guys some time off in order to keep them strong. This is where you want a capable bench.”
Stubbs, it is pertinent to remember, has had .340 average in his last 14 games. The fact that even without Stubbs the Cincinnati Reds performed really well on Tuesday is reassuring, thereby allowing the Reds more space to manoeuvre in the upcoming days.
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