Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game
Pitching was solid on both sides Monday afternoon, but the most noteworthy appearance on Cincinnati’s side was that of Cody Reed. He entered the fray in the third inning, and proceeded to rattle off a pair of perfect innings to begin his 2017 spring. The lefty didn’t strike anybody out, but did retire all six batters he faced on just 16 pitches, 12 of which he threw for strikes. Reed is, of course, heavily in the mix to make the opening day rotation, and will have the advantage of entering the 2017 season with some (albeit troublesome) big league experience. If he posts performances like this more and more as the spring goes on, it wouldn’t surprise anybody to see the prospect lock up a back-end spot in the rotation to start the year. For now, though, he’ll get to hold onto today’s trophy.
Honorable mentions go to Wandy Peralta, who struck out one in a perfect inning of relief; Lucas Luetge, who also worked a scoreless frame; and Stuart Turner, who collected the day’s only extra base hit for the good guys.
Key Plays
- Scott Feldman made his first start of the spring on Monday, and got little help from his control and even less help from the defense behind him. Yasmany Tomas reached to begin the second on an error by Arismendy Alcantara at shortstop, and advanced to second on a wild pitch during an at-bat that would later result in a Ketel Marte walk. Alcantara committed a second error on a grounder off the bat of former Red Kris Negron, plating the first run of the game. An Oscar Hernandez single against Kevin Mitchell brought home another run, and the Reds trailed 2-0.
- After a Billy Hamilton walk started things off, Diamondbacks pitchers retired 13 consecutive Reds hitters. Patrick Kivlehan finally broke the team into the hit column with two outs in the fifth.
- Defensive miscues struck again for Cincinnati in the bottom half of the fifth, when Negron reached off Blake Wood on a two-base error by Chad Wallach at first base. Negron advanced to third on a grounder two batters later, then scored on a single by David Peralta. D-Backs led 3-0.
- The first real offense the Reds generated came in the top of the eighth inning. Phil Ervin smacked the first of three singles the team would compile in the inning, the last of which came off the bat of Hernan Iribarren and scored Ervin from third. It looked for a bit like Cincinnati may be putting a real rally together, but Gabriel Guerrero grounded into a 5-3 double play and that was that. Arizona still led 3-1.
- Tyler Mahle made his spring debut in the bottom of the eighth, and ran into some trouble right away. Jeremy Hazelbaker started the inning with a single to left, then advanced to second when Brandon Dixon, who entered the game at third base in the seventh, dropped an infield pop fly. Mahle got Jason Pridie looking with strike three, but Raymond Fuentes quickly followed that with a 3-run tater to right center. D-Backs lead explodes, 6-1.
- The Reds finally got their only extra base hit of the game in the top of the ninth inning from Turner, but failed to push him across. Reds lose 6-1.
Defense can be hard
Other Notes
- Bryan Price told Marty before the game that Raisel Iglesias should be on tap to pitch at some point tomorrow. At the same time, he said Anthony Desclafani should be ready to go within a few days. Woo.
- Lots of familiar Reds faces have been MIA in the first week of spring training. Mark Sheldon provided an update on the timetables for guys like Desclafani, Devin Mesoraco, Zack Cozart, Dilson Herrera and Bronson Arroyo to get back to normal business.
- Red Reports are back! Wick got the daily features started today by looking at everyone’s favorite Red to report on, Joey Votto.
- The Reds host the White Sox Tuesday afternoon at 3:05p.m. EST, with left-hander Brandon Finnegan getting the start opposite Adam Eaton trade piece Reynaldo Lopez.
- Tunes.