According to Reds manager David Bell, Reds third baseman Mike Moustakas has trained himself on how to play through pain during his career.
This season, Moustakas missed nearly three months with a heel injury. Then on Wednesday, the Reds placed Moustakas on the 10-day injured list with right foot plantar fasciitis.
It’s been a tough season for Moustakas, who hit .208 in 183 at-bats this season.
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“Moose is a very tough guy,” Bell said. “He has a really high pain tolerance. Because of how good of a player he has been for so long, the games that he’s played in, playing in World Series and having long seasons, you get used to playing through things and not really admitting it to yourself or anyone around you.”
Bell said Moustakas reaggravated his heel injury last week when Moustakas fouled a ball off his foot.
After that, in a few conversations with Bell, Moustakas let on that he was in more pain than he had said he had been in.
“At that point, after a few conversations, it kind of came out,” Bell said. “He was on board with it, kind of. He doesn’t want to ever admit or go on the IL. In some ways, I tried to take it out of his hands because I know how much pain he was dealing with.”
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CAN’T STOP: The St. Louis Cardinals have pulled ahead in the NL Wild Card race behind one of the most impressive winning streaks of the season.
Entering Friday, the Cardinals had won 12 straight games to pull 5.5 games ahead of the Reds in the Wild Card race.
Then Friday, the Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs 8-5 in the completion of a suspended game, extending the streak to 13 games and the Reds’ deficit to 6 games.
“Obviously they’re playing extremely well,” Bell said.” They’re hot. For us, the focus of the last 10 days is to absolutely leave it all on the field and finish as strong as we possibly can. We’ll see where we end up. Obviously, we can’t control the Cardinals because we don’t play them anymore.”
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ROTATION UPDATE: Starting pitcher Wade Miley had a start pushed back due to a sore neck, but Miley remains on track to start on Monday.
While Miley and starting pitcher Vladimir Gutierrez have struggled in September, the Reds likely won’t use a reliever currently on the roster in the starting rotation.
According to Bell, it’d be “a stretch” for any of the relievers on the roster to throw more than three innings.
“Over the last couple years we’ve had really stable rotations, and they’ve stayed healthy so it’s tough to keep relievers built up,” Bell said. “Even (Jeff Hoffman) was built up for a while, then eventually that fades. More than two innings would be tough.”
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