Cactus League Game 27: Reds at Rangers

Sal Romano will look to continue his impressive Cactus League performance with a start on Thursday night against the Texas Rangers at their complex in Surprise. Romano’s the owner of a solid 3.00 ERA so far this spring, and has looked the part of a rotation regular regardless of the injuries to his potential rotation peers.

If my rudimentary calculations are correct, regular rest for Sal after today’s start would put him on-path to start the third game of the regular season, the Sunday series finale against the Washington Nationals.

Zack Weiss, Barrett Astin, Austin Brice, Barrett Austin, Astin Brice, Sean Astin, and Aston Martin are all either various pitchers that are available today, cars, Goonies, or names of things that do not actually exist at all.

First pitch is set for 9:05 PM ET, and if you’re not a basketball fan, you can put this game on your TV through MLB.tv, as the Rangers feed will have it for you.

Cincinnati Lineup

Texas Lineup

Malvoe - CF

Laino - 2B

McFee - LF

Marcus - 1B

Fallon - C

Grogan - RF

George - SS

Foster - 3B

Kramer - P

Other Notes

• The Rangers are playing the Seattle Mariners as well today, so this is a split-squad matchup.
• The Reds announced a number of roster moves on Thursday, the most prominent of which included optioning Robert Stephenson to minor league camp and reassigning OF Ben Revere there, too. With Bob Steve, this was rather predictable given his relative struggles this spring, and he’ll now start the year in Louisville’s rotation (alongside Jackson Stephens, who was also optioned). As for Revere, it’ll be interesting to see if he’ll stick around camp since he’s got the ability to refuse the assignment and pursue a big league job somewhere else.
• Earlier today I also took a stab at predicting the Opening Day roster, and since then the Reds have claimed Kennys Vargas and reassigned Revere. Perhaps I should’ve just waited another damn day.
• We’re less than one week away from baseball, folks. Real, real baseball.