MILWAUKEE -- After 304 consecutive games in the infield to begin his career, Matt McLain got a feel for the outfield on Tuesday night after entering the game as a pinch-hitter in the top of the 8th inning and then taking over in center in the bottom of the inning.
McLain, drafted as a middle infielder by the Reds in the first round in 2021, then got his first career start in the outfield on Wednesday night against the Brewers in a game Milwaukee won 4-2.
“There’s a lot of trust,” manager Terry Francona said of his decision to have McLain start in center. “Defensively, he’s a really good player. Sometimes the analytics don’t give him as much credit as I think it should because he’s always in the right place, always makes the plays he’s supposed to. He has a nose for the ball out there.”
McLain flashed the leather early, making a nifty running catch on the warning track in right-center on a Joey Ortiz drive with one out in the second, gently colliding with the fence as he secured the ball in his glove.
“I thought he looked really good. I don’t think it surprised anybody,” Francona said after the game. “I thought he looked really comfortable.”
As he assessed the decision in the visitors' clubhouse before the Reds took the field for the third in a four-game series with the Brewers, Francona had this to say about the 26-year-old McLain: “He’s real excited about it, and that’s maybe the most important thing. He’s embracing it, which is good. I think he’s going to be fine. If he’s not, it’s on me, not him.”
McLain’s 304 games in the infield before his first career outfield appearance are second-most by any Reds player since 1900. Johnny Temple played 379 games in a row from 1952-55 before making an appearance in the outfield.
McLain became the 13th different Reds player (16th occurrence) since at least 1900 with at least one start at shortstop, second base and center field in a single season. The last to do it was Jose Barrero in 2021.
Shifting McLain to the outfield comes with the Reds dealing with injuries to a pair of their center fielders. Blake Dunn (elbow) and Dane Myers (shoulder/ribs) are on the injured list, leaving the team with a dearth of right-handed-hitting outfielders. Myers ended up on the 10-day injured list after violently colliding with the center-field wall while making a spectacular running catch in the fourth inning of Monday night’s game that led to him being transported to a local hospital.
Even though McLain has been inconsistent at the plate (he went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts on Wednesday), his defense makes him vitally important to the team, Francona said.
“He’s shown flashes of what he can do [at the plate]. We all know it’s in there,” Francona said. “It just hasn’t been enough. When you think somebody is a good player, you want to exhaust it. I’ve seen guys who go somewhere else and they find it, and we want them to find it here, especially a guy who can defend like that. That’s so important in our game.”
The Reds entered Spring Training hoping to have their bullpen and defense as strengths.
“Through nobody’s fault, our bullpen is beat up, and we’re not the defensive team we wanted to be. And it shows,” Francona said.
On Wednesday, the Reds fell behind the Brewers 2-0 in the first but tied it in the second on Noelvi Marte’s fifth homer of the season. The score remained tied until the seventh when the Brewers plated a pair of runs off Reds’ reliever Brock Burke (3-4).
Reds starter Andrew Abbott gave up five hits and two runs in five innings. He walked a season-high five batters and struck out three in a 96-pitch outing.
“I knew I didn’t have my good stuff. I was out of the zone, more wild than effectively wild like I normally am,” Abbott said of his struggles in the first two innings before settling down. “You kind of just flip a switch and you’re like ‘I’ve just got to get through five.’”
The Reds are 19-51 in their last 70 games vs. the Brewers with a current seven-game losing streak.