Rockies tie Reds, get more clarity on key position battles

For the second time this Spring the Colorado Rockies played a baseball game that ended in a tie. Taking on the Cincinnati Reds on an overcast afternoon at Salt River Fields in Scottsdale, Arizona, the two teams played to a standstill but there were plenty of fascinating tidbits inside of this 5-5 contest.

Turning Point – Young Guns Fire Back

The Rockies next wave made a comeback for the club in the bottom of the seventh. With a pair of outs, Yonathan Daza singled away from a shift to the right side. He moved up on a wild pitch and scored when Dom Nunez won a long battle at the plate, eventually lining a single into right field. Nunez raced all the way around the bases on a double into the pull gap off the bat of lefty Bret Boswell.

Brendan Rodgers, who also played in the field for the first time since returning from injury in this one, followed that with a hard single through the right side to give the Rockies the lead back at 5-4.

Scary Moment – Lambert Leaves the Game

In the fifth, 23-year-old righty Peter Lambert started to look shaky. He gave up a solo home run to Jose Garcia lead things off and then a line drive single to left to Alex Blandino. After getting a groundout, Lambert suddenly needed attention from the trainer and had to come out of the game. No details are yet known about any potential injury.

He had to be replaced in a pinch by lefty Phillip Diehl who had been darn near perfect this Spring. Well, not anymore.

Diehl immediately surrendered a two-run shot to Alfredo Rodriguez, putting the Reds on top 3-2.

Player of the Game – Chi Chi Gonzalez

In a strong showing for the battle of the rotation, Chi Chi Gonzalez went three solid innings. The first two was perfect and the third saw him run into a bit of trouble when he plunked the leadoff hitter. He got the next guy to hit one on the ground to short but a tough hop forced Trevor Story into trying to make a quick play to turn two. Instead the shuffle throw went wide of second and Ryan McMahon was unable to handle it.

That went down as a single, the only hit Gonzalez surrendered in the game. He got his GIDP in the next encounter and stranded the runner out at third with a shallow fly into right field. He struck out three in the game and brought his Spring ERA to 6.00.

Diamond Details

• Raimel Tapia remains one of the Rockies better hitters this spring. He lined a two-run double into the opposite field gap in his second at-bat of the game. He is second on the team with 11 hits and is tied for third in RBI with seven. He’s hitting .355.
• Ian Desmond, with whom Tapia is battling for the starting left field gig, went 0-for-3 with a pair of strikeouts and is hitting .136 this Spring.
• Scott Oberg pitched a clean sixth inning with no strikeouts keeping his Spring ERA (2.2 IP) at 0.00.
• Daniel Bard gave up the lead the Rockies had just earned but still kept the damage to a minimum in the eighth.
• Ryan McMahon went 2-for-2 and improved his Spring average to .296.
• Rodgers got three chances in the field, snagging a liner and making two quick throws, one to second against his body and one to first across his body. Everything looked smooth and strong.

Final Thoughts

Ties in baseball are weird.

Up Next

If the weather cooperated (which looks doubtful right now) Colorado is back at Salt River Fields on Wednesday to take on the Chicago White Sox at 1:10.