Thursday, March 25, 1999McKeon tinkering with order
Vaughn, Casey switched at 3, 4
BY CHRIS HAFT
The Cincinnati EnquirerSARASOTA, Fla. — Greg Vaughn has been billed as the Reds' cleanup hitter since they acquired him last month from the San Diego Padres, so it was curious to see his name in the third slot in the batting order for Wednesday's exhibition game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
Manager Jack McKeon was curious, too, and wanted to experiment with different combinations. “I've thought about it for some time,” he said. This time he moved up Vaughn and placed Sean Casey, usually the No.3 hitter, in the fourth spot. Casey responded by hustling out an infield single and lofting a sacrifice fly to drive in runs in his first two at-bats in Cincinnati's 5-4 victory.
McKeon hinted that he may continue to tinker with the order, especially when right fielder Dmitri Young recovers from his sore left knee and returns to the lineup.
“When you have Vaughn, Casey and Young as your 3-4-5 guys, you can juggle them any way you want, because you have three pretty good guys right there,” McKeon said. “If Young were available, I would have put Young fourth and Casey fifth, because Young hit fourth a lot for us last year and was very successful (.276, four homers, 35 RBI in 217 at-bats). So we'll see.”
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