By Mark Sheldon

Since so many clamored for it, thought I’d headline it.

Reds lineup vs Pirates

Heisey 8

Renteria 6

Votto 3

Phillips 4

Bruce 9

Cairo 5

Lewis 7

Hernandez 2

Cueto 1

A lot of people (and you know who you are) are harping about the lack of playing time for Chris Heisey. Today’s lineup probably doesn’t totally satisfy you because Heisey isn’t in left field. But the manager wanted to give Drew Stubbs a break.

“I’m going to need Drew all the way through Milwaukee (end of May, early June),” manager Dusty Baker said. Unless something happens, he’s not going to get a day off. We’re in a stretch of 20-straight games and 33 in 34 days, and this is May. He’s a racehorse. You can’t run those horses in the ground. I have to preserve him and his legs.”

As for the Heisey question that’s been asked and answered time and again, by all parties involved, here are some long-form quotes from Baker about how he uses Heisey and what his big picture thoughts about him:

“Everybody was screaming for Nix to play before. They were screaming for Dickerson to play and then they screamed for Gomes, how come Gomes isn’t playing every day? Then they were screaming about sending Stubbs out of here and they were screaming about sending Bruce out of here.”

“Every good basketball team has a sixth man. John Havlicek was a sixth man before he was a regular. He still has some things to learn — to me — hitting wise before he’s an everyday play, but he will be. He knows it. I told him. Sometimes you have to be that sixth man before you can be a fifth man.”

“Coming off the bench is hard to do and so very important. Who would you rather have come off the bench every day and be the secret weapon, Heisey or Gomes at this point? I’m trying to be patient waiting on Jonny. I know how he can carry the club. He’s putting a lot of pressure on himself being his option year. If he’s not playing some, he’s not going to get it at all. He’s the only guy I’ve got here that knows how to DH when we get to the American League, which is not easy to do.”

“Show me a lineup around that doesn’t have somebody in there that’s not productive in the lineup. There ain’t one around. We can look for what we ain’t doing. In the meantime, how many have we won now? That ain’t too bad. We’re trying to get better. We will. We’re not clicking on all cylinders yet. We’re getting there.”

“If you’ve noticed, Heisey stands by me every day during the National Anthem. If things weren’t cool, would he stand by me every day?”