The extreme infield shift is a bit of dare, and Reds catcher Tucker Barnhart is the kind of guy who takes that dare. "It's great to get any kind of hit," he says, "but when they're telling you that you can't hit the ball that way -- to beat that is a feather in your cap a little more than just a normal hit."
He has bunted against the shift four times: against the Mariners in 2016, when he got a hit; against the Phillies in April of this year, when he got a hit; against the Brewers in May, when he got a hit; and against the Diamondbacks last July, which was a mistake.