Bats Go Quiet as Reds Fall to Indians 4-2

W: Jeff Manship (1-0)   L: Raisel Iglesias (0-1)   SV: Will Roberts (1)

As hot as the bats were yesterday for the Cincinnati Reds, they were just as cold today, as they lost 4-2 to the Cleveland Indians in the second spring training game for both teams.

Hitting

After a 10-run outburst in game one, the Reds hitters struggled in today’s game, managing only four hits.

The offense got off to another quick start as speedster Billy Hamilton followed his 1-for-3 effort yesterday with a home run to right-center field to start the game. Skip Schumaker followed with a double and scored when Chris Dominguez doubled two batters later for a 2-0 lead. Dominguez is off to a solid start through two games this spring, going 3-for-4 with two doubles and two runs batted in.

After the first inning, Indians pitchers shut down the Reds offense, which only managed to get four baserunners — on only one hit — for the rest of the game. Tucker Barnhart was hit with a pitch in the fifth inning, Ramon Cabrera walked in the seventh, Irving Falu singled in the eighth, and Chad Wallach walked in the eighth.

For the Indians, Carlos Moncrief went 4-for-4 and top prospect Francisco Lindor went 2-for-3.

Pitching

After shutting out the Indians on Tuesday, the Reds’ pitchers struggled a bit more today.

Anthony DeSclafani, a favorite to make the Reds’ starting rotation, got the start for the Reds, pitching two impressive innings. He struck out two, while giving up two hits and an unearned run (Dominguez committed an error earlier in the inning) on a Roberto Perez sacrifice fly.

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Kevin Gregg was next up, giving up two hits in the third inning, but escaping the inning without a run scoring.

Sam LeCure pitched the fourth, giving up a hit, but immediately erasing the baserunner by getting Tyler Holt to ground into a double play. He struck out the next batter.

Potential rotation candidate David Holmberg pitched a perfect fifth inning, striking out one, but hit a bump in the road in the sixth. After retiring the first two hitters, Holmberg gave up three straight singles — to Jesus Aguilar, Moncrief, and Holt — and a walk to tie the game up at 2-2.

Jumbo Diaz pitched the seventh, giving up a hit, but otherwise coming out unscathed.

The much-hyped Raisel Iglesias made his Reds debut in the eighth and struggled, though he can give some of the blame to his defense. He gave up an unearned run when third baseman Neftali Soto committed an error on a ground ball that should’ve ended the inning. Iglesias gave up another run after throwing a wild pitch (his second of the inning) to score Jake Lowery from third, giving the Indians a 4-2 lead. In all, the 24-year-old pitched an inning, giving up one hit, two runs (both unearned), two walks, and striking out one in taking the loss.

Although Iglesias struggled, the way he can move his arm angle around a la Bronson Arroyo is very impressive, as Chris Welsh pointed out in the Fox Sports Ohio broadcast.

A full box score for today’s game can be found here.

The Reds and Indians conclude their three-game set tomorrow, again at 3:05 EST. For the Reds, Johnny Cueto takes the hill for the first time this spring. Trevor Bauer will oppose him for the Indians.