Carlos Santana's solo home run not enough in Cleveland Indians' 6-5 loss to Reds

Indians 5, Reds 6

Box Score

Indians fall to 0-1

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Baseballs were flying, as they usually do in the dry Arizona spring air, but not enough of them off the bats of Cleveland Indians players left Goodyear Park. As a result, they lost 6-5 to the Cincinnati Reds. Results do not really matter in Spring Training, of course. What really matters is that everyone has fun and gets a big ice cream cone loaded with sprinkles afterwards.

If these games did count, or if Terry Francona decides who gets the biggest ice cream cone based on their performance, Ross Detwiler would be in trouble (and probably would get a small vanilla without sprinkles, at best). Detwiler allowed 2 earned runs off of 3 hits in just an inning of work, including a wild pitch. If Detwiler is to make the Indians squad out of Spring Training, it will likely be as a LOOGY, as he has dramatic splits between left-handed pitchers and right-handed pitchers in his career. Against righties today, Detwiler allowed 2 hits and issued a walk.

But again, who cares, it's Spring Training. The fun thing here is watching players who have no shot at making the major-league team getting some time in high definition. Eric Stamets, a shortstop who will probably start the season in Double-A, homered in the seventh and Shawn Morimando, who is on the 40-man roster but probably will not pitch in he majors this year, looked sharp in his lone inning of work.

Probably the best prospect to watch in the game was Tyler Naquin. He turned a double into a triple early in the game with some great, smooth baserunning off his equally smooth swing. There is no guarantee that Naquin starts the season with the Indians, but he has a shot and he needs to play this a lot more over the next month if he wants to break camp with the team. In fact, it was so smooth he should get some kind of nickname with the word smooth in it. Nurse Smooth? Dermatologist Smooth? Pediatrician Smooth?

Two-thirds of the biggest competitors for the fifth rotation spot, T.J. House and Josh Tomlin, also looked ready to battle it out. The latter allowed 3 hits in an inning of work and the latter allowed 2 hits in 2.0 innings. Cody Anderson, the final part of the potential-fifth-starter trifecta, gets the start tomorrow when the Tribe faces the Reds again.