Boxscore

The Chicago Cubs came to Goodyear to face the Cincinnati Reds today and left after the 10-run rule came into play.

Johnny Cueto started for the Reds and went three innings, allowing no runs. He was followed by an unusually sharp Francisco Cordero. In what we can only hope is a harbinger of improvement this season, Cordero had a perfect inning and struck out two. That’s right! Instead of his usual bases-on-balls, he actually recorded some strikeouts!

Overall, the Reds pitching was outstanding, limiting the Cubs to two hits. At one point, they’d retired 16 batters in a row.

On the offensive side of things, it was the unusual tandem of Paul Janish and Edgar Renteria who got the beating started. Both were playing–Renteria at second and Janish at short–and both had two-hit days. Combined, they scored three runs, driven in by Juan Francisco and Chris Heisey. Only one of the 10 runs was from a homer, and that was from Zach Cozart in the 5th. Definitely not a good day to be a Cubs pitcher, if there ever is one.

Cueto picked up the win, while rotation candidate Todd Wellemeyer gets the loss.

Boxscore

Boy, that was ugly. Still, after the long winter, any baseball is better than no baseball.

Bronson Arroyo started today for the Cincinnati Reds. It was the Reds spring training home opener, held at the same place as yesterday’s game and against the same team, the Cleveland Indians. Yesterday, the Indians were the home team and lost. This time, the Reds were the home team and lost. I’m sensing a pattern.

In a game that means nothing and from which nothing but silliness can be extrapolated, the Reds offense was shutout and the pitchers were rocked. Arroyo went 2 innings, retiring 6 of his 7 batters, but allowing one run on a home run. Then came the parade of relievers. Francisco Cordero gave up a run during his inning of work. Perhaps more troubling than the run is that he walked a batter. He did that far too much last year, and I hope he’s cut down on that by the start of the season. Dontrelle Willis, Nick Massett, Aroldis Chapman, Bill Bray, and a couple pitchers from minor league camp rounded out the rest. Bray was the only pitcher among them all to throw a 1-2-3 inning.

As for the offense, the Reds had none. Well, they had 8 hits, but never managed to string them together in a productive fashion. Oh, and the defense committed 5 errors. Yeah, it was ugly out there. But it was still fun to listen to.

The Cincinnati Reds played some actual baseball today. Sure it was just a 5-inning scrimmage against themselves, but it’s one of those steps to real, live games.

Apparently, a guy you’ve likely never heard of, Dave Sappelt, was the hitting star. Fresh off being the 2010 minor league hitter of the year, he went 3-3 in his first major league camp “game.”

“It’s definitely good to do well in front of the big league staff,” he said. “You want to show them what you can do.”

Logan Ondrusek struggled, giving up three runs on two outs, while Travis Wood was solid. Wood retired six of the seven batters he faced. That one he didn’t get out? A home run from Jonny Gomes.

This was obviously just a warmup. The first Spring Training game is tomorrow against the Cleveland Indians at 3:05pm EST.