The Dzar shows no mercy as the Tribe falls to the Padres

Indians 3, Padres 6

Box Score

Indians fall to 4-6

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A month from now, we would probably be up in arms that the Tribe managed to claw back into relevance only to lose the game in the late innings.  Luckily, on March 12, we can shrug our shoulders, move on with our day, and look towards the next game.

Final score aside, there were some positive takeaways from today's game.  For one, Danny Salazar looks like he is ready for the regular season to start yesterday.  The Dzar had his longest outing of the spring to date, going 4 scoreless innings, allowing only 3 hits and getting one two seven strikeouts along the way.  The broadcast didn't have radar gun readings, so I don't know if the 95-96mph readings that I was seeing on MLB.com were accurate.  But regardless, he had his fastball working all over the zone, causing more than one bat to miss when he climbed the ladder on the Padres hitters.  But, more impressive than his fastball, his changeup and curveball were working beautifully.  Don't take my word for it, take a look:

Giovanny Urshela continued to impress on the defensive side of things on two separate occasions.  In the early innings of the game, there was a slow dribbler hit down the third base line.  Urshela managed to bare hand the ball and do a Jeter-esque jump throw over to first to attempt to throw out Derek Norris.  The throw wasn't in time, but the play helped to emphasize the athleticism of Urshela.  Later, in the fourth inning, a ball was scorched to third and would've been a base hit on most occasions.  Luckily, Urshela played the ball perfectly, spun, and fired a bullet to get the runner at first (Norris again):

A couple of other noteworthy performances came from Jesus Aguilar, who launched a moonshot to left center field in the fourth inning to get the Tribe on the board, and Roberto Perez, who hustled from 1st to home on a deep fly ball to center field off of the bat of James Ramsey.

Overall, the end result was disappointing, but there were enough positives from enough of the guys who will (hopefully) be playing in Cleveland this year that I count it as a good day.   Tomorrow, the Tribe will play two games: one against the Milwaukee Brewers and one against the reigning World Series Champion Kansas City Royals.