John Fay

jfay@enquirer.com

Joey Votto is eligible to come off the disabled list May 31. It's not a given that he will. Reds manager Bryan Price said there is no timetable for Votto to return from the left quadriceps strain.

"There really isn't," Price said. "He would have gladly come back at 50 percent. We've seen in the recent days before the road trip that he just didn't have the base off which to hit. That affects his production. It affects his ability to run the bases and play first base. We took control of the decision-making. We thought we'd get him as close to 100 percent as we can.

"My concern was for him to get to a point where he'd be able to maintain it for the rest of the year. He made some big steps in the week where he didn't play, but not enough for us to consider using him in this series."

Votto missed five games before the Reds put him on the DL.

"The decision came down to where he was going to be when we came home," Price said. "Giving him a week to recover, getting the soreness out of his knee, equally importantly getting the strength back in his quad and his knee. We weren't able to get there."

Votto was getting treatment before Friday's game and was not available to the media. Price said Votto is improving.

"The soreness – I can't say it's completely gone – but it's much more controlled," Price said. "But the strength deficit is still a concern. To me, it made more sense to get Joey as close to 100 percent – that may not be possible this year – but as close to it as we can and give him a better foundation on which to play as opposed to getting him back at 50 percent because we didn't give him an extra week to 10 days to get that stability back in his leg."

BRUCE STARTS: Jay Bruce was back in the starting lineup Friday night – 17 days after having surgery on his left knee.

"I'm excited to be back," Bruce said. "The medical staff was great. They helped me along the way. As a professional athlete, you have a team full of people doing whatever they can to help you recover."

Bruce feels better than he did pre-surgery.

"It's a 180-degree turn," he said.

LUDWICK BACK: Ryan Ludwick was back in the lineup after missing two games with a sore left knee.

"He could have played that last day in D.C.," Price said. "He wouldn't have had a base on which to hit. His timing was already a hair off. It didn't make much sense to play him. The good news is the injury didn't necessitate him being inactive. He was able to do some work in the cages. I think he's a lot closer to 100 percent."

FRAZIER 2ND: Todd Frazier batted second for the first time this year. He hit second 16 times last year.

"I like the look of our lineup," Price said. "I know I've said that a few times here recently and we haven't gone out and scored a ton of runs. That being said, having Jay back, moving Frazier into the 2 hole, having some depth in the lineup with Ludwick hitting in the 6 hole, having (Brayan) Pena seventh, (Zack) Cozart coming off a three-hit game, there's a lot of good things starting to happen.

"I continue to be optimistic that is the type of group that is capable of doing more damage than we've done to this point."