Woes aren't wearing on Miley yet
By Hal McCoy
Dayton Daily News
DENVER | The manager of a major-league team with lofty expectations that has become the favorite to win The Underachievement Award normally feels squirmy.
Cincinnati Reds manager Dave Miley is in that chair right now, but if it is a hot seat, he isn't yet jumping to avoid cheek burns.
His team is playing with heads turned backwards to see what last-place Houston is doing instead of looking forward at division-leading St. Louis, but Miley remains outwardly composed and pleasant.
"I'm OK," he said. "I'm sleeping all right. I wish I could tell you what we can do right now (to fix things), but it is a combination of everything. You try to figure it out, but it is a combination."
He says he is eating OK, too, but before Saturday night's game against the Colorado Rockies, he was eating a bologna sandwich and Fritos off a paper plate, "A poor man's meal," he said.
As he talked and ate, he watched the St. Louis-Houston game on TV. The score was 1-1 with runners on second and third. First base was open so Astros manager Phil Garner walked Albert Pujols intentionally.
Former Reds outfielder Reggie Sanders then hit a grand slam that made it 5-1.
"If Reggie hits into a double play, Phil Garner is a genius," Miley said. "But Sanders hit a home run, so he's a bum. That's the way this job works."
Oh what a night
Pitcher Ryan Wagner said his agent looked at the box score of Friday's game and hyperventilated. When he saw that his client had given up six runs and six hits in one-third of an inning, he thought, "Uh-oh, Coors Field got him."
That wasn't the case. Wagner gave up four infield hits, one that bounced off third baseman Joe Randa's glove for a double, and a bloop single.
"I've never seen that many runs scored without a ball being hit hard," said sympathetic Colorado manager Clint Hurdle.
"I've never seen an inning like that in my entire life," said Miley.
Told that most people couldn't believe the inning, Wagner said, "Neither can my earned-run average." It went from 3.45 to 5.34.
Randa hits second
With Ryan Freel resting for one day after a frustrating 0-for-5 Friday night, shortstop Felipe Lopez batted leadoff Saturday while third baseman Joe Randa made his Cincinnati debut in the No. 2 spot in the batting order.
"I batted second in Kansas City for about half the season last year and did it a lot the year before," he said. "It's different in the National League than in the American League. With the pitcher batting ninth in the NL it isn't as much an RBI spot as it is in the American League.
"I won't change anything," he said. "Lopez isn't a base stealer, so I won't be taking a lot of pitches. I'll just be aggressive, the same as if I'm batting anywhere else in the order."
Salon Ortiz
The line for a haircut was so long it was as if Vidal Sassoon was the stylist.
It was Reds pitcher Ramon Ortiz, open for business this weekend. He cut the hair of 11 players and coaches in one session.
"I love to do it because it relaxes me and it's fun," said Ortiz, who carries his own snipping tools. "This was a busy day. I don't charge, don't want paid. I love it."
As third-base coach Mark Berry left the chair he said, "Remember that pitcher from the 1950s, Sal 'The Barber' Maglie? We have our own barber."
Maglie, though, got his nickname for giving batters close shaves with fastballs under their whiskers.
Farm report
• Outfielder Wily Mo Pena, on a rehabilitation assignment with Class AAA Louisville, struck out in his first four official at-bats, but is 6-for-13 since then with a homer, four RBIs, a walk and three strikeouts. He was 1-for-4 with a strikeout Saturday at Syracuse. How soon will he be back?
"Don't know," Miley said. "He needs at-bats. He missed nearly a month."
• Pitcher Luke Hudson started Saturday night for Class AA Chattanooga in his first rehab start since coming down with shoulder inflammation during spring training.