Also Follow Reds on https://athlonsports.com/
Dateline: Goodyear, Arizona
Brady Singer discovered that it was a bad day to be a fly ball pitcher.
In his six-year career, 61 percent of the balls put in play against him and 39 percent are ground balls.
The Arizona sky played havoc on both left fielders, the Reds Will Benson and the Cubs, Dylan Carlson.
Singer, who has been fine tuning his pitches on the back fields until today, worked on pitch sequencing, a lot of the balls hit by the 13 batters he faced were hit hard, still in awe he could have had a better fate.
Matt Shaw hit a slicing line drive to left field to lead off the game. Benson could not come up with a sliding catch. After Kevin Alcantara, Moises Ballesteros sliced a line drive toward Benson but to his right this time, a diving attempt at a catch skipped past him for a two-run double. Carlson hit a fly ball to right. It appeared that Noelvi Marte lost track of it. It hit off the wall for another double.
"I wasn't very sharp," Singer said. "I wasn't throwing as many strikes as I wanted to but I got my pitches in. It didn't feel as good as I wanted it to, obviously."
"The ball travels a little bit differently out here," Singer said. "For the outfielders its a tough job."
The Cubs scored four runs off Singer in the first inning and one in the third. He pitched 2 1/3 innings, allowing five runs on seven hits and two walks.
"It was his first outing," Francona said. "OK, talking to (Jose) Trevino, his breaking ball was really pretty good. He was trying to get the two seamer inside to righties. He wasn't quite getting it there. The ball came out of his hand good. He will be fine."
The Reds fly balls against Jameson Taillon tended to leave the field of play. Carlson had trouble locating TJ Friedl's fly ball to open the game but made the catch. Jose Trevino hit a long fly to center field that became an adventure for Chas McCormick but he made the catch.
It led to a 17-9 win over the Cubs.
Sal Stewart doubled into the corner to plate Matt Mclain, who walked. Spencer Steer doubled to score Stewart.
Noelvi Marte homered off Taillon to lead off the second inning. A walk and a hit later McLain hit a long, three-run, home run. The Reds loaded the bases in the third against Ryan Rolison. Ke'Bryan Hayes belted a double into the left centerfield gap. McLain hit another three-run home run. Stewart hit a very long home run just to the left of the batter's eye in center, 410 feet from home, that scored three runs against Grayson Moore. Rece Hinds blasted a home run off Connor Schultz. Garret Hampson, who has all of 29 career home runs, despite playing five seasons in Colorado belted one to the opposite field off Schultz.
McLain hit his third home run of the season 421 feet to centerfield.
"When you see someone hit the ball to the opposite field with authority, you're in a good shape. Ke'Bryan swung the bat really well. There were some balls that were hit that were going to be home runs, anyway."
Brandon Williamson is fighting his way back from surgery. He turned in two scoreless innings with a walk, hit batter and two strike outs. TeJay Antone, coming off his third elbow surgery had a strike out in a scoreless inning. Sam Moll threw a scoreless inning with two strike outs. Trevor Kuncl, who attended St. Xavier High School ended the game with a scoreless inning.
Yunior Marte gave up three runs on a walk and two hits, that included a three-run home run by Kade Snell.
The Reds had 14 hits with three doubles and six home runs.
"It was a spring training day but you know what. We did some good things," Francona said. "But yeah, not a good day to be a fly ball pitcher."
No comments:
Post a Comment