Let’s play two! The Cincinnati Reds are playing a game in Las Vegas against the Chicago Cubs (4:05pm ET) and in Surprise against the Kansas City Royals today (3:05pm ET).
Cincinnati Reds (5-6-1) Lineup and Roster
| vs Kansas City (Surprise) |
vs Chicago (Las Vegas) |
|
| 1 | Shogo Akiyama – CF | Jesse Winker – LF |
| 2 | Joey Votto – 1B | Mike Moustakas – 2B |
| 3 | Nick Castellanos – RF | Phillip Ervin – RF |
| 4 | Derek Dietrich – 2B | Aristides Aquino – CF |
| 5 | Nick Senzel – DH | Josh VanMeter – 1B |
| 6 | Curt Casali – C | Kyle Farmer – SS |
| 7 | Jose Garcia – SS | Christian Colon – DH |
| 8 | Scott Schebler – LF | Alex Blandino – 3B |
| 9 | Alfredo Rodriguez – 3B | Tyler Stephenson – C |
| 10 | Sonny Gray – RHP | Tejay Antone – RHP |
| Expected to Pitch | Expected to Pitch | |
| Raisel Iglesias | Josh Smith | |
| Michael Lorenzen | Amir Garrett | |
| Pedro Strop | Robert Stephenson | |
| Nate Jones | Cody Reed | |
| Lucas Sims |
Reserve players on today’s roster:
| Kansas City (Surprise) | Chicago (Las Vegas) | ||
| P | Brandon Finnegan | P | Jose Adames |
| P | Julio Pinto | P | Ryan Lillie |
| P | Junichi Tazawa | P | Ryan Nutof |
| C | Ernesto Liberatore | P | Matt Pidich |
| C | Val Martinez | P | Dylan Rheault |
| IF | Alberti Chavez | P | Chris Volstad |
| IF | Michael De Leon | P | Walker Weickel |
| IF | Miguel Hernandez | C | Mark Kolozsvary |
| IF | Ibandel Isabel | C | Morgan Lofstrom |
| IF | Gavin LaValley | IF | Brantley Bell |
| OF | Brandon Barnes | IF | Alejo Lopez |
| OF | Michael Beltre | OF | Narciso Crook |
| OF | Lorenzo Cedrola | OF | TJ Friedl |
| OF | Drew Mount |
Chicago Cubs and Kansas City Royals Lineups
| Kansas City (Surprise) | Chicago (Las Vegas) | |
| 1 | Nicky Lopez – SS | Kris Bryant – 3B |
| 2 | Ryan McBroom – LF | Anthony Rizzo – 1B |
| 3 | Salvador Perez – DH | Josh Phegley – C |
| 4 | Â Jorge Soler – RF | Ian Happ – CF |
| 5 | Ryan O’Hearn – 1B | Nico Hoerner – SS |
| 6 | Matt Reynolds – 3B | Jason Kipnis – 2B |
| 7 | Erick Mejia – 2B | Noel Cuevas – RF |
| 8 | Cam Gallagher – C | P.J. Higgins – DH |
| 9 | Nick Heath – CF | Ian Miller – LF |
| 10 | Danny Duffy – LHP | Alec Mills – RHP |
Where to watch/listen/follow the game
The game will be live on the Reds on Radio Network. In the greater Cincinnati area the Royals game will be available on 700 WLW. The game against the Cubs is not scheduled to be on the radio. The game against Chicago will be available on MLB.tv, but nowhere else – the Royals game is not being broadcasted.
Reds links and news
If you missed it this morning, we wrote about utilityman Josh VanMeter and how he’s looking to take a new approach at the plate in 2020. The 24-year-old is hoping to be a little bit more aggressive early in counts this season.
This past offseason the Reds added right-handed pitcher Tejay Antone to the 40-man roster after a quality year in Double-A and Triple-A. Then he showed up to spring training and began throwing significantly harder than he’s ever thrown before.
David Laurila of Fangraphs wrote about 2019 Reds 1st round pick Nick Lodolo, profiling him as a “Fast Mover”. Laurila spoke with both Lodolo and manager David Bell within the article. Of note, while Lodolo is in big league camp with the Reds, he will not be throwing in big league games and that is by design.
Final: Royals 7 – Reds 2
It was a tough day early on the the pitching staff, and the offense didn’t get a whole lot done in this one, either.
The Highlights
Shogo Akiyama went 1-3. Alfredo Rodriguez went 2-2 with a double and is now hitting .375 on the spring. They were the only two starters with hits on the day. Matt Davidson had a single and he scored on a 2-run home run by Ibandel Isabel – his first of the spring. That came in the 9th inning with two outs. Ernesto Liberatore also added a single.
Raisel Iglesias threw a perfect inning with two strikeouts. Pedro Strop followed up with a perfect inning of his own that included a strikeout. Michael Lorenzen threw the final two frames of the game, both shutout innings, and he struck out five batters.
It wasn’t the best day for Sonny Gray or Brandon Finnegan. Gray was charged with three earned in 2.1 innings on five hits and a walk to go with his three strikeouts. Finnegan came on to finish the third inning and barely got out of it as he allowed three runs (one inherited runner of Sonny Gray’s scored with Finnegan on the mound) – including two homers – while getting the final two outs. You can see the entire box score for the game here.
Final: Reds 8 – Cubs 5
The bats came out to play on Saturday in Las Vegas as the Reds pounded out 15 hits.
The Highlights
Jonathan India, the Cincinnati Reds #6 prospect, had a big day at the plate. He homered in his first at-bat of the day. That was followed up by a double in the next at-bat. In his final trip to the plate he added a single, finishing 3-3 on the day. But he wasn’t the only guy with a big day at the plate. Both Kyle Farmer and Alex Blandino went 2-3 with a triple. Francisco Pena homered for the second time of the spring, going 1-1 on the day. Tyler Stephenson, the organizations top catching prospect, went 1-2 with a double.
On the mound it was Tejay Antone who started for Cincinnati and he fired out 2.0 shutout innings with two strikeouts. Amir Garrett, Robert Stephenson, Lucas Sims, and Jose Adames all fired shutout innings of relief on the day. You can see the entire box score of the game here.
Aquino in center and Ervin in right. Interesting. Also looks like they are going to give Farmer every opportunity to be the backup SS since he’s there over both Blandino and AlfRod
I like Aquino playing CF, but it scares me for the readiness of Senzel or Suarez. I am looking forward for both of them to get into full action. Rodriguez is playing like a man on a mission, maybe smelling the blood in the water with Galvis. #2020HeathyReds
Looks like Sonny got touched up a bit and Finnegan got crushed.
Blandino lives!
That’s not abnormal. They may be working on something specific while the young guys are trying to stand out. Standing out and getting ready for the season can be different things.
Something I’ve notice this spring training that’s a bit different from years past is that the defense doesn’t look nearly as rusty.
It’s not mid-season form but it seems better than in previous Springs since the days of Dusty.
Also, specifically, Farmer looks fine at SS. I don’t think he’s going to take the spot away from Galvis or anything but a dude that can play catcher and every infield position while batting .270 pinch hitting – that’s not shabby.
its spring training and Votto again has 1 hit for spring training say it doesn’t matter all you want but its the same spring he had last year and look what happened there. His approach is flawed as he proved last year and he looks indecisive and almost lost. but hey its Joey Votto right……. I sure hope so
. I think the shift is to blame for a lot of Votto’s indecisiveness. is there a player that hits more into the Shift than Votto? yes he has been striking out more but it seems like teams just know exactly where to play him. Even when he hits the ball hard it seems to be right at the defender, he barely has to move.
I think this accounts more for his decline over the past couple of years more than just “aging”. teams just really know how to pitch and defend him for some reason.
I’ll second that. Coming up on two weeks before Opening Day, it’s time for the regulars to get their offense in gear if the Reds are going to get off to a good start. Thirty years is long enough to be without at least a NL pennant.
FWIW The Phillies “won” the Grapefruit League last year (followed by the Marlins!) and the Padre took the Cactus League. The Nats went sub .500 and won the World Series.
People can have whatever opinion they want about ST because ultimately, like the games themselves, it won’t matter. Personally, I see nothing to get worried about other than injuries. I don’t put much of any stock into the results. I like to hear about guys showing up in shape and healthy. I like to hear about guys adding velocity or working on new pitches, stances, or working on expanding their defensive flexibility.
I’d imagine that the pitchers are ahead of the hitters. The announcers say it all the time in April, so I’d guess that remains true in ST, especially since the pitchers report a week earlier than the hitters. It takes a hitter a while to get a rhythm. That’s hard to do when you’re getting 2-3 ABs every other day. It’s harder when you may not face the same pitcher twice in a game until later in ST. It makes difficult to grade results when the competition is uneven and the sample size is small. It difficult to grade results because established guys may have a specific goal that trumps the actual results in the game (pitchers working on specific pitches, batters working on seeing pitches, etc). There’s just too much noise in any of these numbers to make them relevant.
It’s March 8th. I know the season starts a little sooner this year, but it is the best news that besides Galvis, nobody is hurt that wasn’t before Spring started. Spring results mean so very, very little.
The challenge to find a second lefty for the bullpen gets ever more challenging. No one seems to be stepping up.