Reds 15, Padres 4: Friars lost again

Tyson Ross kicked off his Spring by retiring his first three batters in order. Everth Cabrera then led off the bottom of the 1st with a four-pitch walk issued by Brett Marshall, who made the spot start for Mike Leake (abdominal injury). But that was the extent of the offense in the first frame as Ross walked Jay Bruce to lead off the 2nd, but was bailed out when former Friar Ryan Ludwick grounded into a double play and then Todd Frazier struck out to end the inning. Seth Smith got a one-out walk and then Kyle Blanks got grazed by the ball to put two runners on in the bottom of the frame, but a double play by Cincy's defense ended the threat.

Burch Smith took over in the 3rd, and didn't have a smooth outing. He gave up a single to Zack Cozart, who later stoke second and then scored on a double by Roger Bernadina.  That was followed by another RBI double by Billy Hamilton. Altogether the Reds sent eight men to the plate and brought three of them home to break the 0-0 tie.

Cincinnati widened the gap further with three more runs off Smith in the 4th, then four runs off Anthony Carter in the 5th. Friars finally got on the scoring train in the bottom of the 6th with the help of a bunch of pinch-runners. Seth Smith drove in two runs with a line drive single to right field, scoring Yeison Asencio (pinch-running for Chris Denorfia) and Franmil Reyes (pinch-running for Will Venable) and putting Cory Spangenberg (pinch-running for Jedd Gyorko) on third base. Daniel Robertson came in to pinch-run for Smith and loved to second base when Kyle Blanks got a four-pitch walk and then was replaced by pinch-runner Cody Decker. Spangenberg and Robertson both came home on an RBI single by Austin Hedges, who stayed in the game to run for himself. But he didn't have to do any running as Alberto Gonzalez gounded into a forceout to end the inning.

Matt Wisler came in and pitched a scoreless 7th inning, only giving up a single that was erased with a double play. Nick Vincent didn't have the same luck, giving up four more Reds runs in the 8th before handing the ball over to Dennis O'Grady to close out the inning. O'Grady coughed up a solo home run to Donald Lutz in the 9th to make it a 15-4 Reds lead, which ended up being the final score.

TL;DR

TyTy had a great outing and Wisler's Spring debut was a successful one, but the Reds still managed to pile on the runs. Plus, we got to see some offensive production from Hedges.

Also, it was awesome to hear Uncle Teddy back on the mic with Scan today. He talked about how weird and depressing it was to be at his first Spring Training without Jerry Coleman, as well as how much the Colonel disliked Spring Training and would always ask, "Is Spring Training over yet?" even on the first day of Spring.

Timmah73 led the comments with 35, more than twice the comments of the runner up, TheThinGwynn (17). They each also got one rec.

Tomorrow the Padres will all come together to take on the Giants in Scottsdale.