3/26/10 Reds v. Mariners (ST)

[MBZags]

It's a big day for both Leake and Wood, as they're both scheduled to go four innings today. I'll provide some play-by-play if I can. Here's the Reds' lineup:

Drew Stubbs cf
Orlando Cabrera ss
Joey Votto DH
Brandon Phillips 2b
Jonny Gomes lf
Jay Bruce rf
Miguel Cairo 1b
Paul Janish 3b
Ryan Hanigan c
Mike Leake p

Here's the Mariners' lineup according to Larry LaRue of The News Tribune:

Ichiro, RF
Figgins, 2B
Jose Lopez, 3B
Ken Griffey Jr., DH
Eric Byrnes, LF
Franklin Gutierrez, CF
Ryan Garko, 1B
Rob Johnson, C
Jack Wilson, SS
Luke French, P

Good to see Griffey in the lineup.

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Marty and Tom are indicating that it's basically down to Wood and Leake for the 5th spot. Tom says to give the Reds a lot of credit for not simply going with the veteran pitchers.

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Stubbs with a deep fly to right over the head of Ichiro, with the aid of much wind. Currently, the wind is going 20-25 mph according to Tom, but it should die down by 2 p.m. local time. Nonetheless, a leadoff double for Stubbs with Cabrera coming to the plate.

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Tom is advocating for a potential platoon of Stubbs and Dickerson in CF. Marty and Tom are talking about the anemic offense provided by the Reds this spring, but they don't seem worried yet. Cabrera has now tried twice to unsuccessfully bunt Stubbs to third.

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Stubbs takes third on a 1-2 changeup. Now, it's a 2-2 count. Tom says Stubbs could steal 50-60 bases if he gets on enough.

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On a full count, Cabrera walks.

There are runners on first and third with no one out and Votto coming to the plate.

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Marty talked to Tom Browning, who is unconcerned about Harang because he had similar struggles at the end of spring training as well.

Votto with a base hit to right! Stubbs scores and Cabrera moves up to second.
Runners on first and second with no out.

Tom is talking about Phillips maybe moving out of the cleanup spot and Rolen sliding in once the season starts.

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Marty is talking about the difficulty of cutting the roster down and how these decisions are the hardest he's ever seen. Tom is surprised by the amount of players left in count.

Phillips blooped a ball to right, which fell in front of Ichiro, but Ichiro gunned down Votto at second with a nice scoop by Jack Wilson.

There are now runners on 1st and 3rd with one out and Gomes up.

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Gomes flies out to center, scoring Cabrera on the sacrifice fly. Gomes must've hit it pretty deep, as there was no play at home.

Phillips still on first, two outs, with Bruce now up.

Chapman threw in the bullpen today with no problems whatsoever, and Marty says to expect him back soon.

Phillips steals second and advances to third on a poor throw to second. Tom says he hopes that the Reds' aggressiveness on the bases continues into the season.

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Bruce strikes out to end the inning. Reds lead 2-0 with the Mariners coming up.

Before the inning ended, Tom said he thought Votto should easily steal 20 bases a year, and Phillips should easily steal 30.

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Ichiro grounds out, 4-3, to open the Mariners inning off Leake.

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Tom is raving about Leake's stats, especially considering aluminum bats and the offensive explosions that typically occur in Arizona. Also, scouts agreed that Leake looked better than Strasburg in the Fall League.

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Marty says that a potential problem with Leake is that he may throw too many strikes.

Leake promptly walks Figgins with one out and Lopez coming up.

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Lopez lines out sharply to RF. Griffey is now up, and he got a nice cheer from the crowd.

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Griffey lines out to first to end the first inning. Leake didn't give up a hit and walked one, but it sounds like all the outs made were hit very sharply.

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Cairo flies out to begin the Reds' second inning. Janish grounds out to third. Quickly, there are two outs.

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Hanigan singles to left, which brings up Stubbs for his second at-bat.

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2-2 now on Stubbs
2 outs
Hanigan on first

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Stubbs grounds out, 6-3, to end the inning.

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Leake makes an athletic play on a ball out in front of the play to barely nip Byrnes at first. Guterriez now up with 1 out.

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Leake with a K via a breaking ball on the outside corner. Marty and Thom both very impressed with the pitch.

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A bouncing ball up the middle to Phillips, who gets Garko at first to end the inning. The balls this inning were not hit very well at all compared to the first.

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Cabrera grounds out, 5-3, to begin the top of 3.

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Votto with a base hit to center on a 1-1 count. It looks like Joey is starting to heat up.

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Votto was picked off, but the first base umpire called a balk on French. As a result, Votto moves up to second with Phillips at the plate.

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Phillips strikes out swinging.
Two outs.
Votto on second.

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On a full count, Gomes strikes out swinging to end the inning.

Heading to the bottom of 3, the Reds still lead, 2-0.

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Leake gets Johnson to fly out to right on a 1-1 count to begin the inning. Leake is working at an incredibly fast rate.

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On a between first and second, Phillips takes 5-7 steps to snare the ball, but he can't get Wilson at first. The first hit surrendered by Leake this afternoon is an infield single.

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Ichiro with a base hit to center, and Wilson advances to third.
Runners on 1st and 3rd.
One out.
Figgins up.

[BLEEDS]

Leake gets Johnson to fly out to right on a 1-1 count to begin the inning. Leake is working at an incredibly fast rate.

I've heard that Leake doesn't mess around on the mound, very deliberate.

PEACE

-BLEEDS

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On a full count, the Reds had Ichiro picked off at first. As Ichiro was in the pickle, Wilson broke for home. Cairo, the first baseman, threw a little bit high to the plate, and Wilson got in under the tag.

The game is now 2-1, Reds.

Leake has now balked, and Ichiro is on third.

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Yeah, BLEEDS, it's hard keeping up with Leake's pace.

Janish makes a diving play on a smash hit to third and guns down Lopez at first to end the inning.

At the end of 3, it's 2-1, Reds.

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Bruce is jammed and grounds out to 3rd to open the 4th inning.

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Cairo grounds out weakly to first. Quickly two outs.

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Janish grounds out to second to end the top of the 4th. Still 2-1, Reds.

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On an 0-2 pitch, Leake hits Griffey in the foot to begin the Mariners' 4th.

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Byrnes with a base hit to left.
Runners on first and second.
No outs.

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Gutierrez grounds into a 1-6-3 double play. Nice work by Leake. 2 outs.

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Garko grounds out back to Leake to end the inning. Leake did a great job getting out of that jam. It's still 2-1 heading into the top of 5.

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Sean White, a RHP, has replaced French on the mound for the Mariners.

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On a full count, Hanigan flies out to CF. 1 out.

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Stubbs strikes out looking. 2 away in the top of 5.

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Cabrera gets a 2-out walk to bring Votto up to the plate.

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Votto with a HR to left!! He's now 3-3 on the day with two singles and the HR! He now has 9 RBI on the spring, and the Reds lead 4-1.

[RedLakerFan24]

Votto is heating up

[MBZags]

And just at the right time, too.

David Pauley replaced White and got Phillips to groundout to end the inning. It's now 4-1 at the end of 4 and a half. Wood is going to take over for Leake on the mound.

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Wood retires Johnson a semi-deep fly ball to begin the inning.

Marty and Thom raving about Leake's poise on the mound, considering his age and lack of experience.

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Wood walks Jack Wilson on four straight balls.

Wood has now walked eight batters in ten innings. Yikes.

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Ichiro flies out to right on a deep flyball for the second out of the inning.

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Line drive base hit to left by Figgins. A piece of Figgins's bat went flying over the Mariners dugout.
Runners on 1st and 2nd.
2 out.
Lopez up.

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Wood now goes 3-0 on Lopez. His control is definitely a major question mark. And now Lopez has walked on ball four. Griffey up.

[texasdave]

Thanks for the play-by-play. Appreciate it.

[MBZags]

Griffey grounds out to Cairo at first to end the inning. At the end of five, it's 4-1, Reds.

No problem, texasdave. Glad to do it.

[MBZags]

Laynce Nix now at the plate to bat for Gomes. Balentien on deck to hit for Bruce.

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Marty and Thom talking about Nix's good spring (.259 AVG, 3 HR, 8 RBI) and how he has a chance to make the team simply because no one else can provide left-handed pop off the bench.

Meanwhile, Nix grounds out meekly to the pitcher.

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Marty talking about how Francisco is the insurance policy in case Rolen goes down. Marty thinks Francisco will be playing 3B nearly everyday in Louisville and sparingly (1-2 days a week) in LF.

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Reds have six players that are out of options, and Thom says that Balentien is the only question mark with regard to making the MLB team. Balentien pops out. 2 outs. Sutton now batting for Cairo.

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Sutton out on a bunt out in front of home plate. 4-1 heading to the bottom of 6.

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Line drive base hits to left for Byrnes and Gutierrez to begin the 6th. Wood has now allowed as many base runners in 1+ innings as Leake allowed all day. New defense for the Reds. Garko just grounded into a 3-6-3 double play. 2 outs. Wow, this is going fast.

3B - Fransico
SS - Miles
2B - Burke
1B - Sutton
LF - Nix
CF - Dickerson
RF - Balentien
C - Miller

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Josh Bard hitting for Rob Johnson at C for the Mariners. He gets a base hit to left to score Byrnes and make it a 4-2 game.

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Wilson hits a shallow blooper to RF that falls. Balentien should've caught the ball, according to Thom, even though Burke was charged with the error.

Runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs and Ichiro up.

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Ichiro grounds out to second to end the inning. Heading into the 7th, it's 4-2, Reds.

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Francisco leads off the 7th.

HAHA! Corey Patterson has taken over for Ichiro in RF for the Mariners.

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Francisco strikes out looking, and now Miller steps in for the Reds.

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Miller flies out to left, which brings Dickerson to the plate.

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Dickerson strikes out on a foul tip into Bard's mitt. Still 4-2, Reds.

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Figgins strikes out swinging to begin the bottom of the 7th. Wood still seems to be struggling with his control.

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Lopez flies out to right, and now Griffey is up with 2 down.

I hadn't heard this, but it's probably old news anyway. George Grande will throw out the first pitch on Opening Day.

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Griffey strikes out on a fastball up and away to end the inning. Wood seems to have found his groove.

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In division-related news, Oswalt left his start with a strained hamstring. It doesn't look good for the Astros.

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Defensive changes for the Mariners:

2B - Chris Woodward
SS - Jeff Dominguez
3B - Matt Tuiasosopo
CF - Daniel Carroll

Miles lines out to center. Thom and Marty are talking about how he has done absolutely nothing to help his chances this spring. His offense and defense have both been terrible.

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Votto grounds out to second to record his first out of the day. Two outs, and Chris Burke is up.

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Burke grounds out to second to end the inning, but Marty and Thom said they've been impressed by Burke's versatility this thread. To the bottom of 8 we go, still 4-2, Reds.

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Balentien runs down a flyball and makes an impressive play to open the bottom of the 8th. Marty and Thom didn't say who was batting, but Tuiasosopo is now up.

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Balentien makes a diving catch. Back-to-back great plays by Wlad with Garko now up.

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Dickerson loses a flyball in the Sun, and Garko is credited with a double.

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A ground ball to second ends the inning. To the top of 9 we go with the score still 4-2.

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Jesus Colome is on to pitch for the Mariners. Reds only have five hits while the Mariners have eight, but the Reds obviously are leading 4-2.

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Nix grounds out to pitcher to open the 9th. 1 out.

Attendance today: 9,009

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0-2 count on Balentien. Popped up a foul ball, but it luckily made it into the first row by first base.

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Balentien hit a fly to CF that goes over the head of Carroll for a double. Sutton now comes up to the plate.

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Sutton flies out to left with Balentien staying put at 2nd.

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Francisco with a base hit to CF that scores Balentien from 2nd. The score is now 5-2. Marty is talking about how Fransisco will one day be a huge run producer. Miller flies out to left to end the inning.

Kip Wells is coming on to pitch the bottom of the 9th.

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Wood's line: 4 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 2 K

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Miles slips on fielding a shot hit to SS, and Woodward reaches 1st to open the inning.

COREY PATTERSON steps in.

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Patterson flies out to CF. 1 out, 2 to go.

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Dominguez hits a line drive base hit, which puts runners on first and third with one out and Carroll stepping in.

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Interesting stat on Wells: Barely 50% of the time in his career has he thrown a first pitch strike. Wow.

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The bases are now loaded via a Wells walk. Griffey steps in. A grand slam wins the game.

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2-0 now on Griffey; Wells cannot find the plate.

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3-0. This is terrible. The Reds are now getting someone up in the bullpen.

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Griffey bails Wells out by swinging at ball 4.

Jon Atkins is warming up in the pen.

Now a full count as Griffey swings and misses again.

[MBZags]

Griffey just won the game - a walk-off grand slam to right-center field.

Mariners win, 6-5.

Wells is just terrible.