Jiminez was very horrible, that's for sure.

Ubaldo still trying to find groove, strikes out four

By Doug Miller / MLB.com | 03/17/12 7:47 PM ET

GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- Brandon Phillips set the tone with a leadoff homer, Zack Cozart had a big day at the plate, and Ubaldo Jimenez continued to struggle this spring as the Reds beat the Indians, 9-2, at Goodyear Ballpark on Saturday afternoon.

Phillips, the Reds second baseman, belted the second pitch of the game over the left-field wall to give Cincinnati a 1-0 lead, and the Reds poured it on Jimenez and the Indians from there. Willie Harris doubled in a run in the second before Cozart began doing his damage.

The shortstop got a rally started in the third, hitting a leadoff triple against Jimenez and scoring two batters later on a Jay Bruce fielder's choice, and he added a three-RBI triple in the fourth inning.

Cozart also turned in the defensive play of the game, ending the third inning by diving to his left beyond second base to snare a Carlos Santana grounder and making a throw to beat the Cleveland catcher.

Catcher Devin Mesoraco padded the Reds' scoring with an RBI single in the fifth inning, helping his team's starter, Bronson Arroyo, who went four innings and gave up one run on four hits for the win. Jimenez gave up six runs on five hits in 3 1/3 innings and has a spring ERA of 9.31. Jimenez struck out four and walked four.

The Indians' first run came in the second inning, when Cristian Guzman led off with a single and Andy LaRoche doubled him in with one out. The Tribe cut the Reds' lead to 7-2 in the sixth when Santana made it to second on two-base error by second baseman Chris Valaika and Travis Hafner singled him in.

The Reds added two more runs in the ninth inning, when Valaika hit a two-out, bases-loaded single off Chris Ray.

Up next for Reds: When the Reds host the D-backs at 4:05 p.m. ET on Sunday, third baseman Scott Rolen will enter the game batting .438 (7-for-16) in eight games, a positive sign after his injury-marred 2011 season. Mike Leake, who gave up four runs and eight hits over three innings vs. the Royals on Tuesday, returns for his fourth start of spring. Sean Marshall and Sam LeCure are expected to appear out of the bullpen.

Up next for Indians: Indians starter Josh Tomlin will try to rebound from a rough outing when he takes the hill against the Royals on the road at Surprise Stadium at 4:05 p.m. ET on Sunday. Tomlin surrendered seven runs on eight hits in three innings in his last start against the Rangers and will be looking to throw more quality strikes. The Indians also will spend Sunday monitoring the progress of injured relievers Rafael Perez (left shoulder soreness) and Robinson Tejeda (strained right calf), who are scheduled to pitch in a Minor League game.

The big bats produced 2 more runs today than yesterday on a big 6 hits. Still 7 runs short due to lousy pitching, especially Jimenez. WTF was he working on this winter?

A Cab and Santana are below the Mendoza line and those are the big bats that need to get going.

Good news.......Sunday's game probably will be rained out.

A good friend of mine used to say, "Sometimes you tie, sometimes you lose; sometimes, it rains." Think about that.

VT'er wrote:A good friend of mine used to say, "Sometimes you tie, sometimes you lose; sometimes, it rains." Think about that.

"Just happy to have another day in the sun, and we've got to play these things one game at a time."

We're not playing for real marbles until the Canadian team comes South to Cleveland on April 5.

A typical crappy start and not much hitting. Glad none of this counts.

CLEVELAND (4) AT KANSAS CITY (6)

CLEVELAND AB R H BI KANSAS CITY AB R H BI
J Kipnis 2b 4 1 1 0 A Gordon lf 2 1 2 2
C Guzman 2b 1 0 0 0 C Robinson lf 1 0 0 0
A Cabrera ss 4 0 1 2 J Giavotella 2b 3 0 0 0
G Petit ss 1 0 0 0 C Getz 2b 1 0 0 0
S Choo rf 4 0 2 1 E Hosmer 1b 3 1 3 2
C Huffman rf 1 0 0 0 B Butler 1b 1 0 1 0
C Santana dh 3 0 1 0 J Francoeur dh 4 0 1 0
R Canzler lf 3 0 1 0 M Moustakas 3b 3 0 0 0
C Kotchman 1b 2 0 1 0 Y Betancourt 3b 1 0 0 0
B Mills 1b 2 0 0 0 M Maier rf 3 0 0 0
R Spilborghs cf 3 1 1 0 D Lough rf 1 0 0 0
T Crowe cf 1 0 1 0 L Cain cf 2 2 2 0
L Chisenhall 3b 4 1 1 0 G Golson cf 2 0 1 0
L Marson c 2 1 1 0 C Clark c 2 1 1 0
L Carlin c 1 0 0 0 M Ramirez c 1 0 0 0
A Escobar ss 2 1 2 2
I Falu ss 1 0 0 0
TOTALS 36 4 11 3 TOTALS 33 6 13 6

CLEVELAND 000 031 000 -- 4
KANSAS CITY 220 200 00x -- 6

E--L Hochevar. DP--CLEVELAND 3, KANSAS CITY 2.
LOB--CLEVELAND 8, KANSAS CITY 4. 2B--J Francoeur,
E Hosmer, A Gordon. 3B--A Escobar. HR--E Hosmer 1
(2) (off J Tomlin). SB--A Cabrera 1 (1), S Choo 1
(1). CS--S Choo. SF--A Gordon.
IP H R ER BB SO HR
CLEVELAND
J Tomlin (L,0-1) 4 10 6 6 0 2 1
C Lee 2 2 0 0 0 1 0
F Herrmann 1 1 0 0 0 2 0
N Hagadone 1 0 0 0 0 2 0
KANSAS CITY
L Hochevar (W,2-1) 3 5 0 0 0 4 0
J Mijares 1 0 0 0 0 1 0
J Soria 1-3 3 3 3 1 0 0
T Collins 2-3 0 0 0 1 0 0
G Holland 1 2 1 1 0 2 0
S O'Sullivan 2 1 0 0 1 0 0
J Jeffress (S,1) 1 0 0 0 0 1 0

WP--G Holland, S O'Sullivan. SO--CLE: R
Spilborghs 2, A Cabrera 2, R Canzler, G Petit, J
Kipnis, L Marson. KC: J Francoeur 2, J Giavotella,
M Moustakas, D Lough, C Getz, G Golson. BB--CLE: L
Marson, R Canzler, C Santana. T--2:32. A--3,751.

Matt Underwood:
Michael Brantley left after 2nd inng...waiting to hear what happened

We have lots of OF depth. Nothing to worry about.

Michael Brantley left Monday's game against the Dodgers for an undisclosed reason.
Brantley went 0-for-1 before being replaced by Ryan Spilborghs. It's not clear whether his exit was injury-related, but Nick Camino of WTAM 1100 writes that he has already left the stadium altogether. Stay tuned for an update on his status.

Related: Ryan Spilborghs
Source: Nick Camino on Twitter Mar 19 - 4:42 PM

hamstring....tightness. Out for precautionary reasons.

GOODYEAR, Ariz. --

Indians center fielder Michael Brantley left in the second inning of Cleveland's game Monday afternoon against the Dodgers with tightness in his right hamstring.

Manager Manny Acta said it was a precautionary move. The Indians are off on Tuesday, which will allow Brantley to rest.

"The trainer's probably going to reevaluate him tomorrow," Acta said after the Tribe's 4-3 win. "They feel it's nothing serious, but the day off helps, definitely."

Acta said Brantley's hamstring tightened up when he led off the bottom of the first inning and grounded out to second base. He played the first two innings in center field before Ryan Spilborghs replaced him.

"[Felix Pie], Spilborghs and [Aaron Cunningham] -- we need to give them a look in center anyways," Acta said. "Some better than other ones, but they can play center."

Brantley, 24, was already filling in for Grady Sizemore, Cleveland's regular leadoff hitter and center fielder who has been bothered by injuries over the last two years and is set to begin this season on the disabled list.

Brantley filled in for Sizemore last season before right wrist and hand issues put him out of action in mid-August. Brantley is hitting .280 with three runs and four RBIs in nine Cactus League games this spring.

Gomez holds own against Dodgers' Kershaw
By Joey Nowak / MLB.com | 03/19/12 6:50 PM ET

Goodyear, Ariz. -- Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw made another impressive Cactus League start, but Jeanmar Gomez and the rest of Cleveland's pitching kept the Los Angeles offense at bay in a 4-3 Indians victory on Monday at Goodyear Ballpark.

Kershaw, the 2011 National League Cy Young Award winner, struck out five in 5 1/3 solid innings but allowed his first earned run of the spring in the first.

Gomez shut down the Dodgers bats in his four innings of work, allowing just one hit and one walk while striking out three. The 24-year-old is one of a handful of Cleveland pitchers competing for the fifth spot in the rotation, and he has now scattered just four hits and three walks over 11 innings of shutout baseball this spring.


"I don't try to think too much about the future," Gomez said. "Just focus on today, and tomorrow's another day. ... My pitches were good today, so that helped me. It was a good job by [catcher] Carlos Santana, and I got help, too, from the defense and the offense."

Cleveland scratched its one run off Kershaw in the first, when Jason Donald singled and came around on a single from Jose Lopez.


Gomez didn't allow a hit until the third inning, when Andre Ethier reached on a one-out triple. But Gomez got out of the jam with an infield pop-up and fly ball to left field.

Santana tacked on an Indians insurance run in the bottom of the fifth with a home run to right field on the first pitch he saw from Los Angeles reliever Javy Guerra.

Indians center fielder Michael Brantley led off the first inning with a groundout and was replaced in the second by Ryan Spilborghs because of tightness in his right hamstring. He'll be reevaluated on Tuesday's off-day.

Up next, Indians: The Indians will have their first off-day of the spring on Tuesday, before resuming play again at 4:05 p.m. ET on Wednesday against the Giants in Goodyear. Cleveland right-hander Kevin Slowey, who is 0-2 with a 5.63 ERA in three Cactus League starts, gets the nod against San Francisco's Eric Surkamp. The game will be broadcast live on SportsTime Ohio and be available on MLB.TV.

Up next, Dodgers: Chad Billingsley starts for the Dodgers on Tuesday in a 1:05 p.m. PT home game against Chris Narveson and the Brewers. Following Billingsley will be three relievers fighting for the final open bullpen spot -- Josh Lindblom, Ramon Troncoso and Wilfredo Ledezma -- as well as Ronald Belisario, who also would be in the mix were it not for a 25-game suspension he must serve to start the season.

We're moving towards the twilight of 2012 Spring Training, and guys we know are starters like Brantley need to get out of some of these meaningless games as the real stuff is within two weeks.

Good news that Gomez held his own.

(no news about Morticia speaking French?)

Boy, we sure ended up with a strange infield at the end of the game.

Hu played short?