--RHP Ramon Ramirez, 25, will make his major league debut Saturday against the Giants, filling in for injured RHP Johnny Cueto (elbow). Ramirez is 4-5 with a 3.08 ERA in 19 games (15 starts) for Class AAA Louisville and was 2-3 with a 4.70 ERA in 11 games (nine starts) for Class AA Chattanooga.
--RHP Jared Burton (lat muscle) is on the disabled list but was on the trip for the first eight games to throw bullpen sessions. He was sent to Class AAA Louisville, where he pitched one inning Thursday on a rehab assignment. Burton gave up one run on a hit, a walk and a wild pitch. He will throw another inning Saturday for Louisville, and if all goes well, he will rejoin the Reds on Tuesday when they open a series against the Pirates. --2B Brandon Phillips is a member of the 20/20 club (21 homers, 23 stolen bases) for the second consecutive year, only the seventh player in club history to do it more than once (Eric Davis did it six times and Vada Pinson five times).
--RHP Edinson Volquez (15-5) continues his quest to become the team's first 20-game winner since LHP Danny Jackson in 1988, facing the Giants on Friday in Great American Ball Park, where he is 7-2 with a 3.40 ERA in 13 starts for his career.
--3B Edwin Encarnacion was out of the starting lineup "to let him get his thoughts together," manager Dusty Baker said. Encarnacion had hit safely in seven of his last 10 games (11-39, .282), but he hit into two double plays and took a called third strike in the ninth inning of Wednesday's 4-1 loss to the Astros. He grounded out as a pinch hitter Thursday.
BY THE NUMBERS: 1 -- Complete games by the Reds starting pitchers through Aug. 26, the day RHP Bronson Arroyo went the route to beat the Astros.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "I'd love to have some complete games, but too many times our pitchers have a high pitch count early in the game, at least one inning with a high count, that prevents them from pitching a complete game." -- Manager Dusty Baker.
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