Cozart leaving knee injury behind amid hot start

CINCINNATI — There was no hesitation as Zack Cozart ranged to his left and dove to stop a sharply hit ground ball up the middle by Pittsburgh’s Starling Marte in the eighth inning Monday night. Cozart knew full well who was running. Having no shot at getting a force play at second on Andrew McCutchen, Cozart quickly got to his feet and threw to first baseman Joey Votto to beat Marte for the second out of the inning.

Eleven months ago — on June 10, 2015 — Cozart tore the anterior cruciate and lateral collateral ligaments and the biceps tendon in his right knee as he attempted to beat out an infield hit against Philadelphia.

Cozart’s knee injury PHI@CIN: Cozart injured on Hernandez’s strong throw6/10/15: Zack Cozart is forced to leave the game after injuring himself stretching for the bag at first on a strong throw by Cesar Hernandez

“It was a pretty bad knee injury,” Cozart said. “I’m actually kind of shocked myself how good most of the time I feel, because the offseason was full of working out and I wasn’t able to do any baseball stuff, really.”

Cozart is off to the best start of his career, giving the Reds and manager Bryan Price a stabilizing presence from the leadoff position. While he was a career .245/.284/.375 hitter coming into this season, a player known more for his …

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