Gene J. Puskar, Associated Press Tike Redman -- batting in the third spot -- lunges for first trying to beat a throw yesterday. Click photo for larger image. More Pirates Coverage: Pirates Notebook: Pitcher Redman hopes to leave miseries in Florida

BRADENTON, Fla. -- Tike Redman at No. 3 in the batting order?

Could it be?

Apparently so.

"Take it and run with it," Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon said yesterday after penciling Redman into the third spot for a fourth consecutive game. "We'll see what happens."

McClendon would not reveal if his lineup for the 5-4 victory against the Minnesota Twins at McKechnie Field will resemble the one he will hand to umpires for the season opener Monday. But he traditionally has used the final days of spring training to deploy his regular order, and he strongly suggested he was doing exactly that.

After Matt Lawton and Jack Wilson, the heart of the order yesterday had Redman batting third, Jason Bay at cleanup rather than his usual third spot, and Daryle Ward fifth. Craig Wilson typically would start rather than Ward, but McClendon is considering not using him in the opener because he struggles against Milwaukee Brewers right-hander Ben Sheets.

If that lineup remains intact, it will have a ripple effect on several players.

The most prominent is Redman, if only because he hardly fits the mold of the prototypical No. 3 hitter. His .286 average over four major-league seasons is solid, and he rarely strikes out. But he has a .319 on-base percentage that is below average and a .394 slugging percentage that is markedly below average. He has only 13 home runs and 75 RBIs in 919 at-bats.

McClendon rattled off a list of attributes that could work for Redman.

"I like his contact. I like his average. I like his two-strike approach. I like his speed at the top of the order. If he gets on base with the big boppers behind him, he'll see a few more fastballs."

At the same time, he stressed having a firm grasp of how unusual the move would be. The most obvious minus is that Jack Wilson, who had 201 hits last season, would not see nearly as many quality pitches as he did with Bay behind him.

"Look, we can sit here and talk about why Tike is not the prototypical No. 3 hitter," McClendon said. "But, if you want to talk about legitimate No. 3 hitters, we don't have one. We don't have Jim Edmonds. We make do with what we have, whether that's Tike or Bay or anybody else."

Redman has batted third in 12 games this spring, including his 1-for-4 outing yesterday that lowered his spring average to .311. But most of those came while Bay was out with a wrist injury. As a result, not even Redman was reading much into it.

He still is not.

	A PORTENT? The Pirates' lineup yesterday might have been a hint of what they will use on opening day Monday, substituting Benito Santiago for David Ross and Oliver Perez for Mark Redman. Yesterday's lineup: Player Pos. 1. Matt Lawton RF 2. Jack Wilson SS 3. Tike Redman CF 4. Jason Bay LF 5. Daryle Ward 1B 6. Ty Wigginton 3B 7. Jose Castillo 2B 8. David Ross C 9. Mark Redman P

"I don't know what to think," he said with a shrug. "I like it because you see a lot of good pitches, and I think I can put the bat on the ball and make some things happen. That's nice. I hope it stays like this."

Bay will be affected, too. He was the National League rookie of the year in 2004 with a .282 average, 26 home runs and 82 RBIs, and he achieved that almost entirely from the third spot. Moving to cleanup surely would add to his burden in his sophomore year.

He does not seem to mind.

"All through Legion ball, college, the minors and here, I've hit in the middle of the order," Bay said. "To me, there just isn't that much difference to the middle of the order. I'll get more opportunities to drive in runs, but that's a good thing. I'd enjoy that."

Bay has power, as he demonstrated, but probably not the great power teams covet at cleanup. He also needs to improve his patience and cut down strikeouts to drive in more runs.

Again, McClendon stressed that he knew the move was out of the norm.

"We don't have a prototypical No. 4, either," he said. "For me, if you're talking about a championship-type club, you're looking at a Barry Bonds or an Albert Pujols in that spot. Jason Bay is an ideal No. 5 hitter. For that matter, maybe even a No. 2. We're not that kind of team yet."

Next on the affected list would be Craig Wilson. He spent most of last season at cleanup and led the team with 29 home runs. But he batted .235 from that spot, lowest in the majors among cleanup hitters with 300 or more at-bats. Overall, he set a franchise record with 169 strikeouts.

McClendon said that Wilson could bat fifth or sixth, and he added Ward, Rob Mackowiak and Ty Wigginton to that mix.

Part of McClendon's motivation, as he explained it, is to move high-average players to the top. That would be Lawton (.277 last season), Jack Wilson (.308) and Redman (.280). This way, he added, he could minimize his team's glaring shortage of players with a history of good on-base percentage.

"We've got quite a few guys who have a lot of strikeouts, if you look at Craig, Mackowiak, Bay and Ward, and that's something we've got to be concerned about," he said. "We need to keep the ball in play, keep the runners moving. We've got to somehow score more runs."

The Pirates ranked 12th in the National League last season by averaging 4.2 runs per game.

Another motivation is ensuring that the bottom half of his order has some semblance of power. The most conventional lineup would have had a 5-8 of Wigginton, Redman, Jose Castillo and Benito Santiago.

McClendon, general manager Dave Littlefield and other staff members will meet tomorrow night in Pittsburgh to determine the order for the opener.

But, as McClendon reminded, it will be written in pencil. Literally and figuratively.

"I know people get on me for changing lineups all the time," he said. "But this is where we are right now. We're getting better. We're making the best of it that we can. We're taking steps in the right direction. But it ain't a stamped lineup yet."