Monday, March 14, 2011

Spring Training Game 18: Hits, Misses & Foul Tips

Rockies 3, Reds 2 (boxscore)

Hits

Rex Brothers

While Matt Reynolds continued his struggles in a "B" game today, Brothers impressed everyone at Salt River Fields when he set the Reds down in order. In the middle of that 1-2-3 inning was an overpowering strikeout of NL MVP Joey Votto. Seems like the Rockies have little to worry about after all from the left side in their bullpen with Brothers' accelerated development.

PS: Franklin Morales had yet another scoreless inning today.

Jose Lopez

Lopez plays the hero with a walk-off single, described by Purple Row's Andrew Fisher as a 350+ foot flyball gapper to RF. In other words, probably a double or triple in reality, but a single was all they needed here. Lopez also threw out the potential go ahead run at home in the top of the 9th inning. Strong game for him as he stays in contention for playing time at second, third, first, who knows where else.

Jordan Pacheco

Hard to believe Pacheco was 0 for his last 8 coming in to today's game. He got himself back on track with a pair of hits, including an RBI double. Had a pretty good day behind the plate as well, throwing out Brandon Phillips trying to steal.

Misses

Jhoulys Chacin

Minor miss here. According to tweeters on scene of this dark game (no TV or radio), Chacin struggled mightily with his command, was hit fairly hard, and was lucky to escape with the limited damage he sustained. That said, regardless of how, he did limit the damage, which might be an indication his bad days could be more effective than some pitcher's good days.

Foul Tips

"B" Game vs Angels

Here are a few notes from the other Rockies game that took place today.

Ian Stewart was 2-4 (2 singles) in his return to action.

John Maine pitched 3 1/3, allowing 4 hits and 2 runs. The important here is his shoulder feels healthy.

Matt Reynolds still hasn't recorded a scoreless appearance in Arizona. He allowed one run (solo HR to a Triple A guy) on two hits. Looking like another classic example of how you never take the 25 north that you expected to in early March.