In today's Reds news update, Cincinnati Reds right fielder Jay Bruce picked up his 500th RBI on Tuesday, scoring Todd Frazier on a first-inning double and making history in the process.
Per Mark Sheldon and Manny Randhawa of MLB.com, "Bruce joined Johnny Bench, Frank Robinson, Vada Pinson and Adam Dunn has the only players in Reds history to reach 500 RBIs by age 27 or younger."
The weight of the moment did not go unnoticed for Bruce.
"It means that I've at least been semi doing my job since I've been here," Bruce stated, via Sheldon and Randhawa's article posted on Wednesday. "It's humbling at the same time. You see the guys that are on that list, some of them had 800 RBIs by this point. You know where you are on the totem pole. It's a checkpoint for me and hopefully it's No. 500 of a lot more."
Hitting just .206 with three home runs and 16 RBIs entering Wednesday's action, Bruce has been scuffling all season - especially since returning from the disabled list after left knee surgery on May 5th.
"It's been a process coming back," Bruce said, mired in a 6-for-34 slump. "The biggest deal is to not try and catch up from what I missed in a game or a week or even a month. It's a full season. It's a long season. There is time left. I just have to continue to build a strong foundation that's going to allow me to be successful all year and not try to force things to happen."
"I need to be in a position to create them when the opportunities to arise."
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