SARASOTA, Fla. • When it comes to the four batters that Mike Matheny intends to hit 1-2-3-4 in his lineup, the Cardinals manager has decided to dispense with ceremony, skullduggery, or guessing.
He's just putting them there, and writing around them.
In Fort Myers, Fla., against Boston on Tuesday, Dexter Fowler hit leadoff and Marcell Ozuna batted cleanup. There was no need to put Ozuna second or third so that he got his at-bats that much quicker and could hit the road that much sooner. That's so 2017. Ozuna is likely to bat cleanup, so Matheny said he might as "well get familiar with how it looks.