The Cleveland Indians played their third-straight game against the Reds on Thursday afternoon.
Here are five notes from the game.
1. Cleveland could not split a three-game series
If you thought it was impossible to split a three-game series in baseball, the Cactus League begs to differ.
The Tribe lost in the Cactus League Opener on Tuesday 6-5.
Wednesday’s game ended in a 4-4 tie. If the Tribe would have won on Thursday, they could have split a three-game series by going 1-1-1.
Unfortunately, the Reds gave them a shellacking.
2. Danny Salazar in a Nutshell
Thursday showed the good, the bad, and the ugly of hard-throwing right-hander Danny Salazar.
The flamethrower pitched two innings and gave up three earned runs while walking two batters.
The good part, that everyone knows about Salazar, is he can strike out hitters with the best of them. Salazar struck out five batters in two innings.
3. Uncharacteristic Day for Shaw
Brian Shaw is one of the best setup men in all of baseball. Clearly he was a bit rusty in his Cactus League debut. The righty gave up five earned runs in just two-thirds of an inning’s work.
We all expect Shaw to be a shutdown eighth inning guy just like he has been the past two seasons in Cleveland.
4. Four Hits? Really?
The Tribe struggled to get guys on base all day. The Indians only had four hits in the ballgame. Also of note is that Rajai Davis is now 0-for-6 in his first two games. Lonnie Chisenhall is 0 for his first 5.
Tyler Naquin went 1-for-3 and is now 2-for-6.
Joey Butler went 1-for-2 and scored the Tribe’s only run of the day. Those two are guys to watch this Spring as they both have a shot of making the club.
5. No Errors!
There aren’t many positives to take from a 9-1 loss in which a team only collects four hits. But the defense didn’t make any mistakes.
It was the first game of Spring Training that the Tribe did not commit an error in the field. Cleveland made one error in the Cactus League Opener and two errors in Wednesday’s tie.
For a team that may struggle to create offense at times this season, it will be imperative for the Tribe to play great defense behind what should be a great pitching staff.
The Indians finally play a team that’s not from Cincinnati on Friday when they take on the Chicago White Sox at 3:05 ET.
It will be their first game of Spring Training away from Goodyear, as they head to Camelback Ranch.
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