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Dateline: 318 kilometers from the Gulf of Mexico
Two games on March 4.
In the 9-4 loss to the Colorado Rockies Graham Ashcraft battled through 2 3/3 innings with a pause in between
The Reds played the Rockies at 3:10 and split the squads to man a night game against the World Champion Los Angeles Dodger at 8:05 Eastern Time. Graham Ashcraft took on the Rockies and young Chase Petty started against the Dodgers.Two games on March 4.
The Reds played the Colorado Rockies at 3:10 and split the squads to man a night game against the World Champion Los Angeles Dodger at 8:05 Eastern Time. Graham Ashcraft took on the Rockies and young Chase Petty started against the Dodgers.
Colorado started the game swinging hot bats. They outscored opponents by 28 runs in their first 12 Cactus League games. The Rockies parlayed five singles and a walk for five hits and a walk for five runs after Ashcraft allowed a hit in the first that was erased by a double play.
There were a couple of seeing eye ground singles and an infield hit mixed in with a couple of line drives, including a two-run double by Ryan McMahon.
Terry Francona lifted Ashcraft with one out in the second, John Murphy put out the fire. Ashcraft re-entered under spring training rules and finished a 60-pitch stint with a scoreless inning. He expects to pitch four innings in his next start.
“I was filling the zone up. They were doing a good job of getting the barrel to the ball,” Ashcraft said. “They did their job. It’s a good part of the game, just some bad luck. I was throwing strikes keeping it around the zone. Even my misses weren’t big misses.”
Ashcraft is still in between joining the rotation or the bullpen.
“They told me halfway through they’d make a decision. They haven’t told me anything yet but they keep putting me out there, so I will do what I can do,” Ashcraft said.
Ashcraft lasted 2 ⅔ innings, allowing five earned runs on eight hits and a walk. He struck out two.
“One thing I wanted to do early is establish the slider,” Ashcraft said. “We did a really good job of it. Me and Stepho (Tyler Stephenson) did. I was using more changeups to righties. Maybe some of those soft contacts would have been swinging and missing. Maybe if I followed the slider with a change up. It’s something we’re tinkering with, sequencing pitches.”
“I thought with some of the right-handers, he was able to establish it,” Francona said.
Hitting:
Stephenson hit a long home run to center field off Zach Agnos. Will Benson followed Stephenson with a 465’ long ball. His second in as many games.
Santiago Espinal collected another hit. He is maintaining a .333 batting average this spring. The two Callihans combined for three hits. Tyler Callihan hit two doubles. Austin Callahan hit one double.
Reds Dodgers.
Chase Petty left the game with a 2-1 lead against the World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Dodger minor leaguers scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth to pull out a 4-2 verdict but Petty did a lot to establish himself as a bona fide big leaguer. He turned in an 11-5 record with a 4.39 ERA.
Petty pitched three innings, allowing four hits, including a home run to Mookie Betts and a single to Shohei Ohtani.
Petty saw the lineup this afternoon.
“It brought a smile to my face seeing who I was going to face,” Petty said. “I know that I belong and I want to show what I can do. I just wanted to attack the strike zone and get ahead, I think I did that well tonight.”
As confident as he was, Petty still had butterflies and was still full of adrenaline when he met the press.
“For sure it’s one of the biggest spots I’ve been in,” Petty said. “You look at one through nine of that lineup and it speaks for itself.”
The 21-year old from Camden, New Jersey used his butterflies to his advantage.
“I usually get nervous before every game,” Petty said. “This is a quote from John Jones, a UFC fighter, who says butterflies are information and use them to your advantage.”
Terry Francona said in his office this morning that regardless of how the start went no one will remember it once he pitches in a regular season Major League game.
Petty will.
“Absolutely (remember this). I’ve been looking forward to my first start in big league camp. I didn’t get it last year. I got it tonight and I have to keep building, said the one of the top pitching prospects in baseball. “I text family members a ton. I wanted to make sure they were all tuned in. They’re texting me right now and they are very happy with what I did.”
Petty made his third Cactus League start. He pitched seven innings and allowed his first run against the World Champs.
“It was fun to watch,” Francona said. “He was against their A lineup. He attacked the zone. When he gave up the home run to Mookie, he came right back and threw more strikes. That was really fun to watch. No one will remember it but you know what every time the young kids play in a game like this it helps our development. He’s a really good kid and he’s learning. We hope he learns fast.”
Hitting:
The Reds jumped on Japanese ace, Yoshinobu Yamamto for their two runs in the first inning. TJ Friedl doubled to open the game. Elly De La Cruz, who built his average to .563 with an RBI single. He doubled later in the game. Austin Hays tripled to score De La Cruz, who also stole second base. Noelvi Marte doubled but made another error in the field.
As of the end of March 4th, De La Cruz is slashing .563/.650/2,265. He had six RBI in his first seven games.
About the two Japanese pitchers, Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki, who at 23, made his first professional appearance in the US.
“I thought the Dodgers first couple pitchers that was real.” Francona said. “Even Austin Hays came in and said, wow. That was impressive. I agree we had good hard contact against Yamamoto. He was throwing the ball really well. We had a good approach. We got some pitches to handle and we hit em hard.”
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