TEMPE, Ariz. — Kendry Morales hit a grand slam for his first homer of spring training and the Los Angeles Angels beat a Chicago Cubs split squad 8-2 Friday.
The 24-year-old Morales upped his spring average to .355 with two hits in three at-bats. He is expected to start the season as the Angels’ first baseman even though he batted only 61 times with three homers in 2008.
“What we need from Kendry is obviously production,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. “He’s going to be up there with a lot of guys on base.”
Through three seasons, Morales has 12 homers with a .249 average in 377 at-bats.
“He has big power,” Scioscia said. “Whether it translates into 15, 20 or 30 home runs, it’s impossible to say. He’s had good at-bats all spring. Defensively, he’s working like a demon (at first base).”
His slam came in the third inning off Cubs starter Chad Gaudin.
Gaudin worked 1 2-3 innings and allowed six earned runs in his third start. In his last outing, he worked two scoreless against Kansas City on March 9. Gaudin was acquired from Oakland in the July deal that brought Rich Harden to the Cubs, and went 4-2 with a 6.26 ERA in 24 games, all in relief.
Dustin Moseley, one of at least three Angels starters competing for two spots in the rotation coming out of camp, allowed two runs and four hits with four strikeouts against a Chicago lineup that only featured Ryan Theriot and Milton Bradley out of the likely regulars.
“The last inning, a couple of pitches I would have done a little different, but I threw my fastball all day long,” said Moseley, 2-4 with a 6.79 ERA over 10 starts and 12 appearances in 2008 after recovering from offseason elbow surgery. “I didn’t throw a lot of breaking pitches. I had good command of (the fastball).”
Moseley worked three scoreless innings to start. He downplayed facing a lineup that featured a lot of players with very high numbers on the backs of their jerseys.
“If I had been making those same pitches to (Cubs regulars) I think I would have been successful,” Moseley said.
Scioscia was happy with the outing.
“It was a great workout for Dustin,” he said. “His pitch count was where it needed to be.”
Notes: With manager Lou Piniella with the Cubs squad facing Seattle at home, pitching coach Larry Rothschild ran the team and was thrown out for arguing balls and strikes by home plate umpire Kerwin Danley. Scioscia described RHP Kelvim Escobar’s Friday bullpen session as a “two-hit shutout.”
Blue Jays 3, Rays 1
DUNEDIN, Fla. — Brett Cecil was tougher on himself than Toronto manager Cito Gaston thought he should be.
Cecil, in the hunt for a spot in the starting rotation, walked four Tampa Bay batters and failed to get through the fourth inning Friday, but the Blue Jays still beat the Rays 3-1.
Rays left-hander Carlos Hernandez, a longshot to make the big league club, gave up three runs before getting the first out in the bottom of the third inning.
“Four walks is not really me, hasn’t been me the past couple of years,” said Cecil, who threw 27 pitches in the third inning. “It’s really frustrating. I’d rather give up four home runs than four walks.
Honestly, to me it was somewhat of a failure, those four walks,” he added. “Walks are a big thing for me. I hate giving them up more than most people. One or two walks a game is not bad, but four in 3 2-3 innings, it’s just not good.”
Gaston was more optimistic about Cecil’s performance.
“He threw more pitches than we’d like to see him throw, but it’s just a step forward, not a step backwards,” he said. “He held them to no runs and one hit, right? Hey, I think that’s a pretty good job myself.”
The only hit Cecil allowed, Shawn Riggans’ single to left, came on his 74th and last pitch. Jeremy Accardo gave up the Rays’ run in the fifth on Adam Kennedys single and stolen base and Justin Ruggiano’s single to center.
Hernandez started the bottom of the third with walks to Michael Barrett and Joe Inglett. Brad Emaus doubled them home and he came around on singles by Adam Lind and Kevin Millar.
They were the first three earned runs Hernandez has allowed this spring in 12 innings.
“He had that one bad inning when he lost command of the strike zone,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said.
Hernandez escaped further damage when Lind strayed too far off second and was caught in a rundown, and Kennedy leaped and speared Jason Lane’s liner near third.
Notes: Emaus, likely headed to Double-A, also had a triple to the center-field fence for the Blue Jays in the first inning. … An MRI on Toronto pitcher Brian Wolfe’s right shoulder disclosed tightness and inflammation but no structural damage. He said he felt a pop in his shoulder Tuesday facing the Rays in Port Charlotte, Fla., shortly before giving up a grand slam to Pat Burrell. … The crowd of 5,691 was the Jays’ first sellout of the spring.
Braves 9, Marlins 2
JUPITER, Fla. — Hanley Ramirez returned from the World Baseball Classic and doubled, stole a base and scored a run in the Florida Marlins’ 9-2 loss to the Atlanta Braves on Friday.
“It’s nice to have him back,” manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “He swung the bat well and made some nice plays defensively.”
It was Ramirez’s first game since Dominican team was upset by the Netherlands — twice.
“That’s baseball. Anything can happen,” he said. “Were you surprised when (the Marlins) eliminated the Mets in September last year? No. It’s baseball. It’s a game. It’s nothing like ‘Oh, we’re going to beat them’ or ‘They’re going to beat us.’ Everybody hit. It’s just that everything we hit was right at them.”
Marlins right-hander Josh Johnson allowed his first run of the spring on three straight singles in the second inning, the only hits he allowed over three innings. He walked one and struck out three.
“It happens,” Johnson said of his run, which boosted his ERA in 11 innings to 0.82. “I threw a lot more sliders today. Everything feels good.”
Center fielder Cameron Maybin went 3-for-3 including a bunt single in the third inning. Maybin, who opened the 2008 season in Double-A Carolina after struggling in the spring, is batting .414 (12-for-29) in 10 games this spring.
“He is working hard with that bunting, adding that type of weapon into his game,” Gonzalez said.
Braves right fielder Jeff Francoeur went 2-for-3 with two RBIs, and third baseman Omar Infante hit a two-run home run off Sean West in a six-run fifth inning.
West, a left-hander who could make his major league debut this year, had his roughest outing of the spring: six earned runs in 1 2-3 innings.
Atlanta right-hander Tommy Hanson, a top prospect who will start the year in the minors, allowed one earned run in 4 2-3 innings.