The Reds are playing bad baseball in the second half. And manager Bryan Price isn’t content to just chalk it up to injuries or chance. His comments after last night’s uninspiring loss to the Indians made it clear that he’s placing the blame on his players’ effort.
From C. Trent Rosecrans’ story at Cincinnati.com:
“What was disappointing and unacceptable tonight was that we didn’t have our head in the game at all, especially in the first five innings. We had two guys who didn’t remember how many outs there were, we had a pitcher that didn’t cover first base on a ground ball to the right side . . . We haven’t done that much this year, but what happened tonight was unacceptable from an effort and mental perspective, it’s not the way we play, it’s not the way we’ll play again. But we need a lot better than that.”
Not the sort of thing players manager Dusty Baker would say. Also not the sort of thing any manager of a struggling team would say if he wasn’t at the beginning of his tenure, as often times managers are blamed for this sort of thing. But right now Price has a chance to set the tone more than he might a year or two from now.
