BRADENTON, Fla. - Looking for a term to describe Reds spring training? Enthusiastic? Optimistic? Low scoring?
Try ''bored.''
It's not that the Reds mind the warm weather. But they want the games to mean something, so the regular season can't come fast enough.
''This is a period where we're ready and we want to get going,'' manager Jack McKeon said Sunday, four weeks into spring training and two weeks from the end. ''Once the bell rings (for the regular season), you see a different brand of baseball. They turn it up a notch.''
That's McKeon explanation for why the Reds' offense has been so anemic lately, scoring just four runs in the last four games. Granted, Saturday's game was with only about half the regulars, but Sunday, all the starters except Pokey Reese played, and they still scored only one run. They couldn't find a way to score runners from third base.
''For some reason, there's not that adrenaline right now,'' McKeon said. ''You wouldn't think it would be that way, but it is.''
McKeon says the Reds could begin playing regular season games now. The starting pitchers have been going six and seven innings, the relievers have been throwing well and all the position players are in shape, even if they're not hitting.
''I'd take my chances with our pitching right now,'' he said. ''We'd be ahead of a number of other clubs. We've just got to find a way to get some offensive juice. We've had opportunities. We just don't get the runs in.''
The 1998 Reds' offense will be much like the one that finished 1997, McKeon says. They were 33-30 after he took over in July.
''We're going to have to scrap for runs like we did last year,'' he said. ''But if we do all the little things, we can muster up three to five runs a game and hold them. I think our pitching is going to be all right.''
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