Noelvi Marte move sparks Reds fan outrage after Terry Francona’s recent remarks

The Cincinnati Reds West Coast road trip, as it seems to do every season, has completely crushed this team's momentum. Heading into Wednesday's series finale against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Reds have lost four of their last five games, and have fallen 3½ games back of the New York Mets in the NL Wild Card race.

Reds fans — those who stayed up past midnight — were furious with manager Terry Francona on Tuesday night. The Cincinnati skipper not only trotted out a questionable lineup in a game the Reds really needed to win, but some of his in-game decision making was extremely questionable.

The biggest cries from the Cincinnati faithful came when a catchable ball during the bottom of the sixth inning — one that could've kept the Reds' deficit to just two runs — sailed over the head of a retreating Noelvi Marte and allowed the Dodgers to plate two more. LA extend their lead to 5-1 and went on to win by the final score of 6-3.

Noelvi Marte move sparks Reds fan outrage after Terry Francona’s recent remarks

Marte was playing center field for the first time in his career, and it showed. Why Francona didn't supplant Marte with one of TJ Friedl or Will Benson — both of whom are competent centerfielders — after Kershaw was pulled from the game, we'll never know.

This felt like one of those "unfair" situations that could've been avoided, didn't it? Francona refused to pinch-run for Jose Trevino during an extra-innings affair against the Arizona Diamondbacks last week because he didn't want to put rookie catcher Will Banfield in a difficult spot catching Graham Ashcraft with the game on the line. How is this any different?

"Part of me, I was fighting myself with do we run for Trevino," Francona said after Saturday's game. "I didn't think that was fair to put the kid (Banfield) in the 10th inning with a ghost runner on second trying to catch Ashcraft. You know, I was really fighting that one."

So it's not fair to put a rookie catcher behind the plate (with potentially a two-run lead) in order to win a baseball game, but it's perfectly fair to deploy Marte as your starting centerfielder — a position he's never played — and leave him out there when other options are clearly available? Make it make sense, Reds fans.

Far be it from me or anyone else to question a future Hall of Fame manager in that moment, but Francona's comments ring hollow after seeing how he's handled the lineup the past few games. Cincinnati is now behind the eight ball and New York is surging.

Francona has hung his hat on his team playing clean baseball this season, and the Reds have looked like anything but during this nine-game road trip.

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