Graham Ashcraft believes he belongs in the big leagues. He took a big step toward proving it in his second start of the season against the San Francisco Giants in a 5-1 win, the Reds' third in a row.tre
"He believes he belongs and in a good way/ He's not cocky," David Bell said. "There was discussion about him making the team out of spring training. He isn't just a fill in. We have no plans to send him back,"
Ashcraft, who allowed two runs in 4 1/3 innings on Sunday in Toronto, white washed the Giants for 6 1/3 innings. He allowed just four singles and two walks. His second walk with one out in the seventh to Evan Longoria ended his night on the mound. Alexis Diaz came out of the bullpen.
"He was getting ahead of hitters," Bell said. "He has great movement on his pitches that make for a tough at bat. He got a lot of ground balls against a good lineup with a lot of left handers."
"It is awesome to get that first W," Ashcraft said. "It was something, I've been working on for a long time. I'm extremely pleased with my outing. I didn;t punch a lot of tickers. Strikeouts are nice and every thing but getting ground balls can keep you in the game longer. Of course I wanted to stay in but when he came out. I knew I could get out of the inning but there was no way, I wasn't going to be pleased with that outing."
Meanwhile his teammates were building a lead against Giants' sttarter Carlos Rondon.
Alejo Lopez, who replaced Tommy Pham in the lineup, singled to open the third inning. Lopez stole seconol base and scored on Mtatt Reynolds' double to left. Reynolds scored on an infield hit by Tyler Stephenson. The Reds' catcher hit a check swing slow groiund ball to Donovan Walton at second Walton tried to shovel the ball to Wilmer Flores at first with his glove. it was hign and Stephenson beat it to first. Reynolds continued to home and scored aeasiily.
Bell has emphasized taking the extra base since spring training.
"Matt is a good player," Bell said. "Each run means so much. If you go all out, you give you have a ch a chance to score."
Brandon Drury lined a 3-0 pitch into the left field seats on a 3-0 pitch.
"We trust out hitters," Bell said.
"I was trying to be aggressive 3-0. Especially when the pitcher has a good slider or off speed pitch," Drury said. "I don't want to let a good fastball fo by. It depends on the sittuation. With a runner on first, you don't want to hit into a double play. But with no one on, in a close game, I want to be aggressive."
Diaz got out of the seventh without a run scoring but walked the leadoff batter in the eighth and allowed a single to Tommy La Stella. David Bell brought in Art Warren after Mike Yastrzemski popped out. Warren surrendered a hit to load the bases by Wilmer Flores. Warren hit Pederson to force in a run.
Warren got out of the inning with the lead when Brandon Crawford hit into a 4-6-3 double play. Lopez to Farmer to Moustakas.
The Giants brought on Jake McGee for the eighth but neglected to put him on the lineup card and he had to be removed for Jose Alvarez.
Albert Almora Jr. got the run back with a double. Stephenson singled but was forced at second by Aristides Aquino. Moustakas walked and went to third on Almora's gap shot to right center. Lopez reached base for the third time on a walk. Nick Senzel reached on a catcher;'s interfence that forced in the fifth run.
It was the fourth tijme this season that Senzel's bat was ticked by the catcher and the 10th time in his career.
Warren earned his third save with a scoreless ninth.
No comments:
Post a Comment