There are no ties in baseball. Except when it’s spring training.
Neither the Dodgers (0-1-1) or White Sox (1-0-1) were content to let the exhibition season end without needing three numbers to describe their record. Either that or Robin Ventura, the home manager, elected not to play after exactly three hours of baseball at Camelback Ranch on Sunday.
Dodgers reliever Peter Moylan surrendered a 2-run home run to White Sox slugger Adam Dunn in his first Cactus League inning. The Dodgers scored when Tim Federowicz doubled and Hanley Ramirez drove him home with a single in the third, and again on Luis Cruz‘s solo home run to left field in the sixth.
Here’s what we learned:
• Zack Greinke and Hyun-Jin Ryu have something in common: Both are fairly quick workers on the mound.
• Yasiel Puig (0-for-2, two strikeouts) is not invincible. His first at-bat, against right-handed starter Erik Johnson, was good. Puig worked the count full and I wrote down that he saw eight pitches (plus or minus 1, let’s say). His second at-bat came against left-hander Scott Snodgress in the fifth inning and it didn’t last nearly as long. “It didn’t seem like he picked that guy up,” manager Don Matingly said. Overall, he added, “at this point he doesn’t look out of place.”
• Cruz wasn’t aiming for the fences when he smacked a Jhan Marinez curveball over the left-field fence in the sixth. Spoken like a true veteran, Cruz said, “I just want to get my timing right, get good at-bats. … I wasn’t trying to hit it out, I was trying to hit it up the middle.”
• Elian Herrera seemed genuinely scared when he recounted getting hit in the side of his helmet by a pitch from 6-foot-5 right-hander Jake Petricka in the seventh inning. “If I didn’t move quickly, I might be dying right now,” he said. Fortunately Herrera pulled back at the last second and felt well enough to stay in the game. He said he was feeling fine after returning to the clubhouse.
• Ryu wouldn’t reveal his exact weight, but he did say that he’s lost seven kilograms (or 15.4324 pounds) since camp began. Asked about Ryu’s physique, Mattingly said, “He looks good. For me, he’s a guy that — I know the eye test, he’s a bigger guy — but he moves good. He’s like a [Jonathan] Broxton. Brox was huge but he moved good. He moved like a guy that his body was underneath him, it wasn’t like a slug. You can’t help it. Just going through the day and doing our stuff, you’re going to get in shape.”
• Here is the box score.
