"Just because we're facing a tough left-hander (Maholm), a guy who is really tough on left-handers," Reds manager Dusty Baker said. "Jay is struggling a little bit (.188), so this takes a little pressure off him. No slight on Jay, it just depends on the lefthander and how tough he is on left-handers."

Edwin Encarnacion switched places with Bruce in the order. He's batting .200, but with six walks: "He's knocking fire from the ball in (batting practice), so it seems he is just around the corner from getting hot," Baker said.

Of Encarnacion's walks, Baker said, "That's good, especially this early in the year because it shows you're recognizing pitches. That's the toughest thing this part of the year because you haven't had enough reps to really zero in on recognition of pitches."

Encarnacion had a single and another walk in four plate appearances in Saturday's 10-2 loss, while Bruce had a single (not off Maholm) in four at-bats.

Extra for Janish

Paul Janish was hard at work at 10:30 in the morning, fielding about 100 hard-hit ground balls produced by coach Mark Berry, who takes no prisoners with his fungo bat.

"I'm going to do it three or four times a homestand," Janish said. "You can field all the batting practice ground balls you want, but Mark hits the ball hard and makes you go hard left and right.

"With my role, going into games in the eighth and ninth inning, well, that isn't the time to sharpen up," he said.

Plans for Owings

Micah Owings isn't scheduled to make his starting debut for the Reds until Wednesday in Milwaukee, so Baker has an extra man in the bullpen.

"We have to find a way to keep his endurance and pitch count up," Baker said. "We can't overuse him in case we go extra innings and need him. I have to be more careful now about using him as a pinch hitter, unless I'm going to keep him in the game to pitch. Then I have to figure out how to warm him up (to pitch) before bringing him in to pinch hit. He hits a lot in batting practice, he loves to hit."

Amazingly, Owings pinch hit with one out in the eighth and ripped the first pitch from John Grabow off the left-field wall for a double, narrowly missing a home run.

Quote of the day

"I'm not worried about Willy Taveras figuring out how to play in this weather after having the flu. He played in Colorado last year, where it snows and has sunshine in the same day." - Baker.