Cincinnati and Cleveland took the field at Goodyear Ballpark on Saturday afternoon to open up their slate of spring training games. There wasn’t much hitting from either side as the Reds and Guardians combined for just 10 hits. Cleveland was able to take advantage of their hits just a little bit more, scoring in three different innings in a come-from-behind win.
The Highlights
It didn’t take long to see the first challenged call of the spring. Sal Stewart took a called strike but tapped his helmet in the 1st inning and the replay from Hawkeye showed that it was outside of the strikezone and the strike call turned into ball four and he trotted down to first base with a walk.
Chase Burns got the start and he struggled to throw strikes in the 1st, walking two batters but he kept the Guardians from scoring. He was more effective in the 2nd inning, but also had a walk in that frame, too.
The game was scoreless heading into the 3rd inning but it didn’t stay that way for very long. Reds #6 rated prospect Edwin Arroyo led the inning off with a double and he came around to score when Will Benson came through with a 2-out, 2-run home run.
Rhett Lowder took over for Cincinnati in the bottom of the 3rd inning and picked up two strikeouts in a perfect inning. Things didn’t go as well the next inning as he gave up back-to-back doubles to get Cleveland on the scoreboard. He would work around a walk later in the inning, getting back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning and hold onto a 2-1 lead.
Julian Aguiar, like Lowder, pitched well in his first inning of the game. But he ran into some trouble in his second inning of the day. He issued a 1-out walk and then saw that haunt him as David Fry followed up with an RBI double that tied the game up. The inning ended on an unsuccessful challenge of a called third strike.
Cleveland would grab the lead in the bottom of the 7th after a leadoff triple that was just out of glove reach of left fielder Hector Rodriguez was followed up later in the inning by a walk and then a 2-run double. The Guardians held that lead over the next two innings as the Reds failed to get a baserunner in the 8th or 9th.
You can see the box score for this game here.
News and Notes
Julian Aguiar was on the mound in a game for the first time since September 19th or 2024. That was his final start before he underwent Tommy John surgery. He topped out at 95.1 MPH during this outing with both his 2-seam and his 4-seam fastball.
The five pitchers the Reds used on the day combined for 11 strikeouts. They also walked seven batters in their 8.0 innings and every pitcher had a walk on the day.
Blake Dunn had the only hit of the day from a non-starter for the Reds. He went 1-2 with a single into center.
And perhaps the most important note: It appears everyone remained healthy in the game and that is really all that matters today.
Sunday’s Game
The Reds are back on the field Sunday afternoon. They’ll be back at Goodyear Ballpark, but this time they will be the home team as they host the Seattle Mariners at 3:05pm ET. Jose Franco is scheduled to get the start in the game. Also expected to be on the mound during the game are Graham Ashcraft, Brock Burke, Connor Phillips, Tejay Antone, Lyon Richardson, Zach Maxwell, and Luis Mey.
May as well get the losses out of the way now when they don’t count.
It was good to watch baseball today. It was a long and tough offseason.
Too true. I’d rather see wild now. They are trying new things by throwing different pitches in new counts.
I definitely want to see what hitters look like in a couple more weeks.
Yes it would have been nice but the game was blacked Out in my area.
I live in indiana (47334) Reds tv was
NOT A AVAILABLE TO ME AND THE CLEVELAND FEED WAS BLACKED OUT. WHY?
You should not have been blacked out through MLB/Reds.tv.
Check with your ISP. Tell them about any error messages you received. Otherwise, just complain that you are in the area the Reds say you should be able to stream via Reds.TV and ask them for an explanation.
Nice to see Burns using his changeup against lefties…. and that he wasn’t overamped. Lowder was having some issues locating as fastball but his offspeed stuff looked good. Curious to see Stewart at second base even if seemingly out of necessity.
Well nuts …
Still, we had live baseball today. That’s a big plus in my book.
I have big hopes for Benson this year. I know his career numbers aren’t great, but he made a fundamental change to his stance and approach and I’m hoping that results in a lasting improvement in his stats, a continuation of what we saw for part of 2025. As for the game outcome – doesn’t matter. Just get reps and stay healthy. Except – I will be rooting hard for Tejay Antone. The dude has been through so much and worked so hard, any return to the Reds is a triumph. Here’s hoping.
Clarification for Doug (and Melvin). We ended up not adding any cheese to the steak bowls. Just the meat, lots of veggies, and mine over cauliflower rice (First Wife had regular jasmine rice).
😀
There’ll be some interesting players to watch this spring: Lowe, Stewart and Dunn, to name a few, let’s see how it goes.
I was hoping I wouldn’t have to talk about my No. 1 pet peeve with pitchers, notably Reds pitchers – WALKS!!!! I know it’s only Spring Training but that is the ideal time for the young pitchers to work on their control!
Hopefully today was an anomaly and Reds pitchers will dial it in and NOT average nearly a walk per inning!
Not concerned about wins or losses during ST but on making improvement in the Big 3 – hitting, pitching and fielding!
The game was lost by a pitcher that I didn’t even know was on the Reds. Spring Training wins and loses really don’t matter a hill of beans. Wow I am old.
Anyway, Lowder looked pretty good the first inning he pitched. The second inning he pitched not so much but still not terrible. Burns was pretty wild today. Hopefully in a start or two he can clean that up. As for Aguiar was just good to see him pitching without pain.
Hitting was pretty quiet today though nice start for Benson to hit a homerun on the first day of spring.
Jim day on radio said Burns was looking at landing area of pitching mound and seemed focused on it…FWIW with walks.
Was at the game today and again tomorrow. By the end of ST I will have seen the reds more than 10 times. One really great thing not mentioned so far is how athletic Cam Collier looks. He has clearly slimmed down and made a great play coming in from 3B today on a slow roller. In the Arizona Fall League a few months ago I saw him make two great diving stops, one he threw the runner out the other he didn’t but he might be able to play third.
Edwin smacked the ball hard on his double. Stephenson stung the ball hard twice. Benson hit a real shot. Blake Dunn had a solid squared up single. All in all a good day.
What a great start to the season for you. Enjoy all 10 games. The rest of us are jealous!
On the tube I thought Collier looked heavy. He has gone up and down as a pro.
Last November and again today in person, he definitely is down a bit in weight and more fit.
I think we are far enough along to make the following judgments:
Reds need to play more night games. I worry they will get sunburn and have to be on the injured list.
The Detroit Tigers need to get their act together.
That’s all for now. I will have a better update after I read about the ABS and why it’s politically divisive.
Hector Rodríguez fell dangerously after attempting to catch the line drive that ended up being a triple in the 7th. I was scared about he could be injured after that…
He had two balls that he needed one more step to get to but the one where he fell to the ground was real scary live because after he hit the ground it seemed like it took him a second to get up and in that time I had thought that he had hurt himself. It was good to see him stay in the game.
One final comment on this ST game! It has to do with the last 5 words in Doug’s game summary headline!
Doug, I hope don’t see “pitchers (Reds) struggle to throw strikes”! the rest of this year! Especially after ST is completed!
I could only remember lots of 2025. The author of this post seems to want to blame the pitching and lack of control.
I don’t get it. The FIRST game of ST and a very young power pitcher starting. I would expect a few walks.
It was the ghost of the 2025 offense that I found concerning. There were several chances to win the game 5-4, but even la ead-off double by Arroyo, just seemed like 2025 all over again.
Look what Cleveland accomplished with same…
Anyway, it was just early ST. I see no need to blame anyone, yet!
The author just needs a headline about the loss. The Reds walked a bunch of batters. Sorry it wasn’t good enough of a headline for you.