The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Benzinger: No feedback from Reds about this season

Raiders fall in tourney opener
5/25/12
Rough 1st inning sets up Tipp exit
5/25/12
Mesoraco's slam sends Reds over Braves
5/25/12
Local Scoreboard for May 25
5/24/12
Ohio State AD says 12 violations minor
5/24/12
> More sports headlines

By Sean McClelland, Staff Writer 12:14 AM Friday, August 13, 2010

DAYTON — Todd Benzinger said nobody with the parent Cincinnati Reds has broached the subject of his future, but it sounds as if he would welcome a third season as Dragons manager.

“It’s definitely not something where, ‘Oh my gosh, this is terrible losing games like this, there’s no way I want to come back next year,’ ” Benzinger said. “It’s nothing like that. If anything, if you’re a competitor, you don’t want your last year to be where, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s the year they lost 58 straight at home.’ You want it to be the year you qualify for the playoffs.

“If anything, it stirs your competitive juices.”

Benzinger said all his discussions with the Reds have concerned personnel.

“I get no feedback whatsoever, good or bad, about the job that I’m doing or any of the coaches are doing,” he said. “No feedback either way. And that’s fine. It’s probably the way it should be anyway.

“Right now it’s like, gee, we’ve got to win games. You’re immersed in what you’re doing here. I don’t hit and I don’t throw. I don’t go out in the field and make errors and walk people, but you know what? I am a reflection of what these guys are doing.”

EMBARRASSING? Local sports talk host Mark Schlemmer on Thursday told his WONE-AM 980 audience the Dragons’ losing ways have “embarrassed the city.”

“All I can say is these guys are playing as hard as they can,” said interim hitting instructor Jason Baker, who also works as a scout for the Reds. “That’s kind of hard to say that about a group of kids who are 19 to 24 years old.”

LaMARRE IN CF: Reds 2010 second-round draft pick Ryan LaMarre, who had been playing right field primarily, replaced Andrew Means in center and in the leadoff spot Thursday. Means, despite a .198 batting average in the second half, was promoted to Lynchburg after Wednesday’s game.

“Andrew’s got a ton of upside,” Baker said. “I’m eager to see how he does. Maybe working with some guys up there will help him. Defensively, he’s more than ready.”

HE’S BACK: Outfielder Justin Reed is taking Means’ roster spot. A return Dragon, Reed began this season at Lynchburg, where he batted .158 with two home runs before serving a 50-game drug suspension that just ended.

A fourth-round pick in 2006 from Jackson, Miss., Reed batted .239 with 11 homers, 36 RBIs and 18 stolen bases with the  Dragons in 2008.

Contact this reporter at  (937) 225-2408 or smcclelland@DaytonDailyNews.com

Lugnuts 10, Dragons 3

HIGHLIGHTS: Lansing DH Brad Glenn hit two homers, including one that left the stadium in the first inning, sending the Dragons to their 23rd consecutive home loss.

TURNING POINT: In the sixth, the Lugnuts scored four runs, thanks to a pair of errors by first baseman Tommy Nurre. The first eight Lugnuts reached base and the carnage would have been worse had two of them not been thrown out at the plate.

PITCHING: Dragons starter Clayton Shunick worked 5 1/3 innings before being done in by his defense. Successors Jason Braun and Kevin Arico combined to give up five runs in the ninth.

ON DECK: Right-hander Tim Crabbe (2-4, 4.29) starts tonight as the Dragons again try to find the magic combination that will yield a home win before embarking on a six-game road swing.

— Sean McClelland, staff writer

Share this article