Cactus League 2/28/13 Split Squad Rox/Snakes

[texasdave]

Split squad today. Early highlights:

Arizona:
Frazier reaches on an error and is doubled home by Donald.
Leake hurls the first two innings, giving up a run on two hits. He walked none and struck out three.

Colorado:
Chapman goes two hitless innings. No walks and one K.

[texasdave]

Colorado:
Xavier Paul loses a ball in the sun, leading to a Rox triple. Ondrusek gets the next batter to ground out to Brandon to end the threat.
Bottom of the 4th. JJ Hoover on. He Ks the first batter he faces. A single and a double lead give the Rockies a 1-0 lead. Hoover Ks two in his inning of work.
Top of the 5th: First two Reds reach - singles by Hannahan and Phipps - before Cozart hits into a 5-4-3 triple play.

[texasdave]

Arizona:
Choo leads off the bottom of the third with a single. Nice.
Votto draws a one-out walk.
Ludwick singles to drive in Choo.
A balk and a walk to Bruce loads them up.
Frazier up. Wild pitch scores Votto. Todd grounds into a force out at home.
Donald singles home a run.

[Maker_84]

chapman is solid just as everyone thought. The question is can he endure an entire season?

[texasdave]

Ex-Reds' farmhand Jeff Francis pitched three scoreless frames. Ex-Red Matt Belisle now on for Colorado.

Xavier Paul with his second hit of the game. He has singled and doubled. Slidin' Billy pinch-running for Paul. Hamilton was picked off of first yesterday.
Phillips one-hops the wall in right and Hamilton strolls home. Flynn (?) and Kelch said Billy 'glided' around the bases. They were impressed.

[texasdave]

Is Alfredo Simon pitching his way off the squad? 2.1 IP so far. 6 hits 3 earned runs.
Corky Miller helps him out a little by gunning down a would-be base stealer at second.

[texasdave]

Manny Parra comes on and pitches a scoreless inning and two-thirds.

[texasdave]

George Foster must live in the Tri-State area. He does a lot of local commercials.

[texasdave]

Neftali Soto with a lead-off single off Belisle.
Mejias-Brean, on the first pitch he sees this spring, doubles down the left-field line. Second and third, nobody out.
Dennis Phipps Ks.
Zach Vincej is getting his first look this spring with one away. He gone. Second and third, two outs.
Mesoraco up for the first time today.
Devin gets the green light on 3-0 and he lines a single that plates a pair.

[texasdave]

Arredondo pitched a scoreless top of the sixth against Arizona.
Jason Donald doubles for his third hit of the game but gets gunned down at third.

[texasdave]

Arrendondo walks the lead-off batter in the 7th. Surprise!

[texasdave]

MARCH 1ST:
Mesoraco with his second bomb of the spring.
Negron goes deep.
Hamilton singles to left and the promptly swipes second and third.
Latos two scoreless frames.

[Tuff Nut]

'Cause of work, I can't get on here much during game day, but keep the updates coming fellas....love hearing how the team is doing.

[texasdave]

March 2nd. Reds at White Sox

Bats are quiet through 7.5.
A single by Phillips. A double by Votto. A handful of walks.
Billy Hamilton is 0 for 1 with a walk and his third stolen base of the spring.

Arms:
Arroyo 2IP 5H 2ER
Galarraga 3IP 2H 1ER 1HR
Christiani 1IP 1H 1HR
Contreras 1IP 1H 0ER
Drew Hayes 1IP 1H 0ER

Reds threatened in the top of the 8th with walks to Hamilton and Rodriguez but Lutz whiffs with runners on second and third.

Marty and Cowboy raving about Soto's defense at first, saying he has made a number of fine plays in the first week of spring training. Brantley opines that Soto can really 'pick it'.

Reds 9th: Bruce lines a single. His first hit of the spring. Now 1 for 12.
Burriss with a looping liner. Two on.
Nevin Ashley grounds one through the legs of the pitcher but the shortstop fields, steps on second and fires on to first. Two down.

Reds blanked 4-0.

[texasdave]

March 3rd: Reds hosting KC Royalty.

Homer Bailey flinging bullseye arrows at the Royals for two innings. He gave up a hit, walked nobody and struck out five.
Cingrani came on in the third. He struck out two and walked noone. But Alex Gordon took him deep.

Joey Votto with a two-out, bases-empty double. Devin Mesoraco doubled to start the third.

Logan Ondrusek comes in and works an extremely shaky fourth. A double, a single and two walks. He did strike out two. Jay Bruce makes a long-run, sliding catch in deep right to save three runs.
Jose Arredondo also working out the kinks. An infield single, a rocket to left caught by a diving Xavier Paul, a stolen base, a ground ball out, a rocket to the right field corner for a double, and a fly ball to right all add up to another Royalty run.

Marty in midseason hyperbolic form. Noting KC's 8-0 record he asserts, as only Marty can, that Ned Yost is the early-season Manager of the Year in the American League.

A brand new lineup for the Reds in the top of the sixth.
Hannahan
Negron
Burriss
H. Rodriguez
Lutz
LaMarre
Y. Rodriguez
Barnhart
Lotzkar

Lotzkar walks the first batter he faces and then the second batter singles. A force at second and a second walk has the bases juiced. A rocket liner right back at Lotzkar for out number two. A line drives in the fourth Royal run. JJ Hoover comes and promptly gives up a two-run single. 6 zip and I have heard enough. And before I can type the trivia note a bloop single makes it 7-0.
We have a Willy Taveras sighting. He skies softly to left to end the 6th-inning carnage.

Trivia: Xavier Nady is actually Xavier Nady VI. His son is Xavier Nady VII.

Reds avoid the schneid on 8th-inning doubles by Negron and LaMarre. Fall 8-1.

All this talk about who will be the backup middle infielder among Izturis, Burriss, Donald and Rodriguez got me to thinking; hey, what about Negron? Word has it that he is an excellent fielder in both the infield and outfield. That sort of versatility is nice. He might not hit much. But then again neither did Valdez or Janish or Cairo (v2012).