Nick Senzel Gets First Center Field Test As Mariners Sail Past Reds In First Loss

Former Reds jumped on the offerings of new Reds' starter Alex Wood in a three-run first inning.  The Reds were playing the rest of the game into a head wind in an 11-3 loss.

Rookie left-handed pitcher from Japan, Yusei Kikuchi breezed through the first inning, locking up Joey Votto with a breaking ball to end the inning.

Wood gave up three runs in his first Reds' outing.

"I would have like a better start for sure.  That's what spring training is for," Wood said.  "You come to a new place.  You want to make a good first impression, even in the spring.  Three runs is not what you want but I feel good.  I'm throwing all right.  I will just throw in the bullpen and get ready for the next one."

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Shed Long walked, leading off against Wood.  Long was traded to the Yankees for Sonny Gray late last month.  The Yankees sent Long to Seattle.  Edwin Encarnacion, who broke in with the Reds', doubled.  Long scored from first.  One out later, Domingo Santana,who has eight home runs against the Reds, gave the Reds' newest center fielder a ball to chase out of the ballpark.

Senzel is learning the center field position to make the team by filling the void left by Billy Hamilton. Nothing was hit in his direction other than Santana's long home run until the fifth inning.  Senzel made a routine catch on a fly ball with the bases loaded.  Kyle Lewis hit one a little deeper that Senzel handled easily.

"It was good just getting into a game.  Luckily in that last inning, I caught a pop fly," Senzel said.."It was good to get that one off my back.  I was waiting on a pop fly the whole game. I was sure I would get one sooner or later.  I felt comfortable. I felt I got a good jump off the bat on the ball Santana hit.  I thought maybe I can rob this one then thought, no, no I can't."

The ball was half way up the batter's eye in centerfield which towers above the eight foot fence.

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The plan was for Senzel to get two at bats but since he was due up in the sixth inning.  David Bell sent him back to the field.

"I'm very confident that I can do this.  I feel like I can play it at a high level," Senzel said.

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Playing center field at a high level requires more than just catching fly balls.

"Just talking on positioning and making sure, I'm communicating with (Yasiel) Puig and Phil (Ervin) today, just telling them where I'm positioned and how much room we have. We have to move around and make sure we're in the right spots."

"He wasn't going to get him another at bat and decided to play him another half inning," Bell said.  "I told him it was good to see he could catch a ball.  Actually, I'm sure it is kind of a big step.  He made a good strong throw in.  It was nice to get that out of the way.  There is so much to it.  The athleticism is there.  He's working on it.  You can practice pretty much everything but there are things that come up in a game that you just have to do it to learn.  He's going to get a lot of playing time."

Michael Lorenzen in his first outing of the spring allowed a two-run home run to Lewis.

Kyle Farmer and Gavin LaValley had two hits.  Ervin hit his first home run of the spring off  Dan Altavilla.