CINCINNATI -- Reds second baseman Scooter Gennett hasn't looked good throwing the ball for much of the season's first month. Gennett already has four errors -- all on throws. On Monday, the explanation behind the issue was revealed.
Gennett has been dealing with a sore shoulder and underwent an MRI exam on Monday. He was still awaiting the results, but was out of the starting lineup vs. the Brewers after serving as the designated hitter on Sunday at Minnesota.
"If you guys have been watching the game I think you could probably tell that there's something there," Gennett said. "It's not only that, it affects everything, too. Hitting, I feel like I'm late on a lot of pitches that normally I'm never late on. Which I think is a result of it just not being 100 percent but, you know, I'm not the type of person to make excuses by any means. I can't really say that that's because of why I'm not hitting the way I should or why I'm not throwing the ball the way I should."
Alex Blandino started at second base vs. Milwaukee while Gennett was available to pinch-hit.
There wasn't a single incident where Gennett hurt his shoulder, but he's been dealing with it since the early days of Spring Training.
"Some days are better than others," Reds interim manager Jim Riggleman said. "Cold weather was worse than other days. He's a tough little guy. He wants to be in there. It was tender enough that he's really not getting his arm in a slot to throw from that's really where he needs to be."
Gennett has often been sidearming his throws to compensate for the injury. He has also been getting treatment to get ready for games.
"It's something I'm trying to get on top of every day, whether it's strengthening, getting it activated, warming it up every day," Gennett said. "It just kind of lingered a little bit, but hopefully we'll get some information and be able to really know what's going on. I think just a couple days would be good without throwing just to give it a little rest."

Riggleman going over baserunning
About 90 minutes before batting practice on Monday, Riggleman and third-base coach Billy Hatcher gathered several Reds position players around second base for a meeting. They were going over baserunning and techniques.
"We had the other half of that group out in Minnesota the other day. Billy and I got the other ones today," Riggleman said. "There's a tendency [that] everybody covers everything with intensity in Spring Training and the next thing you know, you play a couple of months and the situation hasn't come up. Just kind of reviewing things a little bit."
Peraza approach same, but results better
Reds shortstop Jose Peraza started the season 0-for-12, but came into Monday batting .337 in the 24 games since. Peraza had eight hits in the three-game weekend series vs. the Twins -- including a four-hit game on Friday that included the first two-homer game of his career.
Including his continuing putting the usual pregame work in, Peraza insisted that his approach at the plate hadn't changed much.
"I watch more video. I need to know what the pitcher is going to throw to me," said Peraza, who turned 24 on Monday. "Sometimes you feel really good and something good is happening for me now."