Dante Bichette's first three days as a Red have been eventful. He has been cheered. He has been booed. He has hit a home run. He has butchered a couple of plays in right field. And he has thrown out a runner at third base and another at the plate.

        Bichette, who came to the Reds in a trade with the Colorado Rockies, looks to be destined for a love-hate relationship with Reds fans. That was the case in the Reds' 8-5 loss to Milwaukee Wednesday.

        He was booed when he came to the plate in the fifth inning, thanks to a defensive blunder in the Brewers' half of the inning.

        Bichette promptly homered. That, of course, got cheers.

        But they hadn't totally forgiven him. When he fielded Marquis Grissom's routine single in the eighth, Bichette got some sarcastic cheers.

        He got real cheers when he threw out Grissom at home to end the inning.

        “Yeah, I know I've been shaky out there,” he said. “I'm going to work as hard as I can. I'll get better or die trying.”

        The Reds traded for Bichette to get his bat. Bichette averaged 29 home runs and 118 RBI and hit .318 his seven years in Colorado.

        Bichette showed how dangerous his bat can be Wednesday. He was 0-for-8 before the home run, but he had hit two other balls that came close to going out.

        “I felt like I had some good at-bats,” he said. “But I finally got the ball on the good part of the bat. To get the first one was big.”

        Bichette also singled in the eighth.

        Bichette's bat will keep him in the lineup. Defensively, the Reds had hoped by moving him to right field — his natural position — Bichette would not be a defensive liability. That has not been the case.

        Bichette made an error Monday.

        Tuesday, he fell down fielding a ball. He wasn't given an error, thanks to a generous scoring decision, but he would have held the runner to a double with a clean play.

        Wednesday, he let a ball hit off the base of the wall and bound past him for a triple.

        All three misplays led to Brewers runs.

        The two straight losses to the Brewers made the Reds' clubhouse a glum place. But Bichette said: Keep it in perspective. The Reds are 0-2 with 160 games to play.

        “It's too early,” he said. “It's too long a season (to worry about a slow start). When you start talking about negative things like that, you start pressing.”

Bichette taking bad with good BREWERS 8, REDS 5 Harnisch moved up to start Friday REDS NOTEBOOK

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