Petty shows he belongs with strong start vs. defending champs
Mark Feinsand
@feinsandGLENDALE, Ariz. ¨C Roki Sasaki¡¯s debut may have grabbed most of the headlines Tuesday night, but for Chase Petty, it was a game he¡¯s unlikely to forget anytime soon.
The Reds¡¯ No. 6 prospect, Petty made his first career spring start in a big league game, having only pitched out of the bullpen in his three career Cactus League outings.
That alone would have been enough to make Tuesday¡¯s game special. The fact that he was facing a Dodgers lineup loaded with superstars made it surreal.
¡°You look one through nine in that lineup, it speaks for itself,¡± Petty said. ¡°Seeing that lineup earlier today, seeing who I was going to face, I was so excited. It brought a smile to my face because I want to see where I belong.¡±
After holding the Dodgers to one run on four hits and no walks -- the lone run came on Mookie Betts¡¯ first homer of the spring -- Petty was still all smiles.
¡°It¡¯s been a dream of mine to just be in the Major Leagues for as long as I can remember,¡± Petty said. ¡°I feel like this was the first step towards that and showing that I belong there.¡±
¡°That was probably one of the best parts of the day, seeing him go and face their A lineup,¡± T.J. Friedl said. ¡°I'm sure there were some nerves for him, but you couldn't tell; he was so confident.¡±
Petty¡¯s first pitch of the night to Shohei Ohtani came in at 98.1 mph, the first of 21 pitches that registered at least 97 mph. His 51st and final pitch of the night was a 91.8 mph slider that froze Freddie Freeman for a called third strike, one of four punchouts for the 21-year-old right-hander.
¡°It was just attacking with my best stuff,¡± Petty said. ¡°I know my stuff's good and I believe in my abilities and my talents. It's just throwing strikes, attacking hitters and getting ahead early. I feel like I did that well.¡±
Earlier in the day, manager Terry Francona said that once Petty is pitching for the Reds in meaningful games, nobody would remember what he did against the Dodgers in a spring game. After the game, even Francona was grinning ear to ear when asked about Petty¡¯s outing.
¡°He attacked the zone, and then when he gave up the home run to Mookie, he came right back and threw more strikes,¡± Francona said after the 4-2 loss at Camelback Ranch. ¡°Every time these young kids play in a game like this, it helps their development. He's a really good kid and he's learning ¨C and we hope he learns fast.¡±
Mixed results for Ashcraft
Graham Ashcraft made his third start of the spring Tuesday in the first half of the Reds¡¯ split-squad day-night marathon, and while his final line was far from pretty, both he and Francona thought his outing was better than the numbers indicate.
¡°I was filling the zone up, they were just doing a good job of getting the barrel to it and hitting it where we¡¯re not,¡± Ashcraft said. ¡°They just did their job. Just some bad luck.¡±
Ashcraft allowed five runs on eight hits over 2 2/3 innings against the Rockies, with all five runs coming in the second inning. A pair of soft-hit singles helped get the inning going for Colorado, while a dribbler down the third-base line accounted for another run.
That¡¯s not to say that Ashcraft didn¡¯t make some mistakes, too. Thairo Estrada¡¯s line-drive single clocked in at 100.6 mph, while Ryan McMahon drilled a two-run double that came off the bat at 103.6 mph.
¡°I thought in the first inning, he was really good,¡± Francona said after the 9-5 loss at Salt River Fields. ¡°The entire time, the ball came out of his hand really well. With some of the right-handers, he wasn¡¯t able to establish in, so he was catching too much out over the plate, so that¡¯s where you¡¯re seeing some of that contact."
Ashcraft posted zeros in both the first and third inning, so while the second didn¡¯t go the way he had hoped, he wasn¡¯t allowing the bad frame to sour his feeling about the day as he tries to beat out Carson Spiers and Andrew Abbott for the No. 5 spot in the rotation.
¡°It's spring; we're all working, we're all out here trying to fine-tune our craft,¡± Ashcraft said. ¡°If we can keep doing that, I feel like that's where you build your success for the long haul of the season.¡±