John Fay

jfay@enquirer.com

PHOENIX The big shakeup wasn't so much a shakeup. It left the Reds with a matchup special lineup.

After Thursday's humiliating, 4-0 loss to Arizona Diamondbacks, Reds manager Bryan Price hinted that changes would be make.

"We'll let our roster play," he said. "Let guys fight it out for playing time. That's the direction we'll go."

He did insert bench players Skip Schumaker, Roger Bernadina and Ramon Santiago into Friday's lineup because of their success against Friday's starter, former Red Bronson Arroyo.

The moves put left fielder Ryan Ludwick, Brayan Pena, the team's hottest hitter, and shortstop Zack Cozart on the bench. It left Donald Lutz, the hottest hitter the Reds had in the minors, on the bench.

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The social media reaction to the lineup was swift and negative.

"We're in a situation -- you look at our lineup -- Lutz has been here a while, he's got one start, Bernadina's been here a while, he's got a handful of starts," Price said. "We've got a few guys here with some numbers. All of them are in the lineup.

"There's nothing that needs to be read into it."

Schumaker goes into the game 19-for-51 (.373) with a home run and six RBI against Arroyo, Bernadina is 7-for-10 and Santiago is 2-for-3. Price was so set on the match-ups that he started Bernadina at first base for the first time since rookie ball.

"He's been working out at it the last few days," Price said. "We've had a catch over their in (Brayan) Pena who's had very limited experience at first base. We've got Lutz, who played a couple games at first base at Triple-A before we called him up. We don't have the most seasoned first base options here without Joey (Votto).

"So I felt, you know what, we've been rolling the dice -- Brayan's been doing a great job at first base -- but I think with this matched what I needed to get Roger in there and giv him a shot based on the matchup with Bronson."

Bernadina has struggled all year at the plate. He was hitting .146 going into the game.

Price downplayed the fighting-for-playing-time statement Friday. He said nothing could be read into Santiago starting for Cozart, for example.

"The point of what I said (Thursday) is the fact because we're struggling offensively, it's creating opportunities for guys that haven't been playing much to get more playing time," Price said. "It may be right and it may be wrong. But in the end, we've had a month where we've averaged three runs a game for the entire month.

"I'm not a big message-sender through lineups. I'd rather have a good conversation with someone standing in the outfield (pregame), as opposed to bringing someone in my office and shame them into thinking they're going to hit better. I don't work that way."

The bench players will play more, but no one has lost their job.

"If we were more productive offensively, I wouldn't feel the necessity to give these guys more playing time," he said. "The guys who aren't playing will play again in this series and on regular basis throughout the season. But these other guys are going to get more shots."