Early Dusty

Some tidbits from the pregame session with Dusty Baker:

--On Edwin Encarnacion: "Give him a mental day off and let him hit, hit, hit. He's been hitting in the cage. He hit on the field. Just give him a day off and give (Ryan) Freel a start."

--On EE's mental state: "He seemed better today. But it's killing him honestly. I heard he started like this last year. That gets in your head. Mentally, you think: Dang, here we go again. It happens to everybody."

--On Reds' pinch-hitters being 0-for-11: "When we first started, I said early in the season they're going to be pinch-hitting a lot because pitchers don't go that deep. In this National League, you win a lot of games with pinch-hitters. We hit extra a lot. But there's nothing like live pitching."

--The Reds are set up so they could keep Aaron Harang on normal rest and skip Josh Fogg for Tuesday's start against the Cubs in Wrigley. "We're discussing that now," Baker said.

--Baker had heard about Homer Bailey's 5 2/3 inning, four-hit, one-walk, seven-strikeout performance. Baker's question: Why did he only go 5 2/3? The reason was Bailey's pitch count was around 90.