March 12, 2007

Reds 3, Blue Jays 0

Most impressive Spring Training game yet. And that's saying..............something. Right? Anything? It surely says something.

Maybe the better story is the most impressive outing of Spring Training. That's correct, it beats Bobby Livingston smoking down the heart of the Yankees. This one belongs to Matt Belisle, new frontrunner for fifth place.

NOTABLE THINGS


Pitching: Only 2 hits allowed today. In the entire game. A truly impressive shutout victory. It begins with Belisle, and thankfully does not end with him. But Matt was the starter, going further than any starter previous to him, going 4 innings and allowing 1 hit. 1 measly hit! 1 walk and 3 K's thrown in for good measure. What a kid. I just named him dark horse, but he's not too dark anymore. Just a horse. Weathers and Hermanson followed up with back-to-back innings of no hits. Victor Santos pitched the seventh and eighth, allowing the other hit and K'ing 2. I like the guy. He pretty much has no shot of getting the fifth, especially with Belisle showing everybody up. But I think he could be used at some point during the year. Jared Burton got the save, K'ing 2 and walking 1.

Hitting: Freel got leadoff duties yet again. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come. Unfortunately, he only had one at-bat and didn't play most of the rest of the game. Hopefully everything is okay for the loveable little guy. He did make his at-bat productive, getting a hit and scoring a run. Norris Hopper replaced Freel and went 2/3 with 2 of the 3 RBI's. Phillips, Dunn, Moeller, and Denorfia got the other hits, Dunn getting the other RBI on a base hit in the first inning. Psst.......check the shortstop lineup for the Jays. Looks like Clayton and Olmedo. Sound familiar to anybody? We miss ya, li'l Rey.

Fielding & such: No errors today, 2 double plays instead. Gil & Janish turned one over to Votto (in a sign of things to come) and Phillips & Gonzalez finally got the first of hopefully many and many.

No comments: