So far the Brewers haven’t had much in the way of luck when it comes to Split Squad days and today added to their misery as they dropped a pair of games. One team lost to the Oakland A’s 8-6 while another that featured ace Zack Greinke lost 7-4 to the Seattle Mariners. That makes it 0-4 in split squad games.
However, we all know that the final scores aren’t the important results in most Spring Training games as it’s really about individual performances and building up to the regular season. Taking the lead of Nick I’m going to be switching up my reports to give you some of the key things that happened for individual players, either good or bad.
Seattle Highlights/Notes:
– Zack Greinke continued the impressive start to Spring Training for the starters on this team. He pitched 3 scoreless innings and worked to start the top of the 4th, but was pulled after walking the first batter he faced. Greinke only allowed 1 hit and fanned 5 batters in this start. It sounded very impressive through the radio and it sure shows the pitchers have come out really focused. In fact if you include Estrada as a starter for Marcum they have a 0.60 ERA as a group and that’s just ridiculous at any point when you’re playing games.
– Greinke might steal some of the headlines, but Aramis Ramirez sure broke out of his spring slump today. He had not ONE, but TWO hits and both were long doubles at Maryvale Baseball Park. For the day Ramirez was 2 for 3 and also scored a run for the Brewers.
– Backup 1st baseman Travis Ishikawa was the starter in this game and made it count, knocking in a home run. It was his 2nd homer of Spring Training and his average after today’s game sits at a solid .316 for the Spring.
– On the other side of the coin was the performance, or lack there of, from Mark Rogers. He entered the game with the score tied at 2-2 in the top of the 9th. The wheels feel off for him from the start as he loaded the bases and the floodgates opened after a Michael Saunders double plated 2 more runs to make it 4-2. In his 1.1 innings of work Rogers allowed 4 runs on just 2 hits and 1 walk. He did manage to fan 2 batters though.
– Francisco Rodriguez and Many Parra gave up one run each in their single innings of work as the Brewers couldn’t hold on to the 1-0 lead.
Oakland Highlights/Notes:
– Manny Ramirez for Oakland got things off to a cracking start as he knocked a homer off of Michael Fiers who go the start in the split squad game. One more run would cross the plate in the first two innings as Fiers was a victim of bad defense once again.
– Gamel had a really bad error as he threw a ball towards second to try and turn a double play, but instead he just threw it off the head of the runner.
– It was a comedy of errors as Gamel, Logan Schafer, and Martin Maldonado were all called for errors in the game.
– Maldonado made up for that error by knocking a home run (1). It was his only hit as he went 1 for 3 for the game. Gamel also made up for his error at the plate, going 1 of 2 at the plate with 2 walks and a run scored. He continues to impress at the plate in his bid to become the everyday starter at 1st base.
– Nyjer Morgan returned to action after being beaned in the head by Barry Zito and he made it count, going 2 for 3 but also reached on a walk.
– Frankie De La Cruz had an absolutely brutal day pitching as he went exactly 0.0 innings, allowed 2 hits and 2 walks as well as 4 runs (3 earned) as he took the loss against the A’s.
– We even got an appearance from Tim Kurkj… err Tim Dillard who gave up only 1 walk and 1 hit over 2 innings of work after his ESPN debut as he went all Tim Kurkjian during the Brewers segment on Baseball Tonight. If you haven’t seen the video check it out here.
Up next for the Brewers is a trip to take on the NL Central rival Chicago Cubs on Wednesday. First pitch is scheduled for 3:05pm Central and Randy Wolf will get the start against the Northsiders.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
