Luckily for the Arizona Diamondbacks, these spring games really mean nothing. In another tough offensive outing, the team mustered only one hit after a leadoff single by Willie Bloomquist. Former Diamondbacks ace Dan Haren pitched three innings, striking out seven, and the Angels got two runs off of starter Trevor Cahill, which would turn out to be plenty. The Angels came away with a 3-0 win over Arizona.
Cahill pitched three innings, gave up five hits and two runs, including a homer to Alexi Amarista in the third inning.
Manager Kirk Gibson said after the game that he threw better, but part of what the team is looking to do right now "try to figure him out," both in catching him and defending behind him.
Cahill feels is he right where he was last year, but that it took him "about an inning to get comfortable." After that, he said he "felt pretty good."
Of the five hits he gave up, two of them were ground balls that just got through the infield.
Tyler Skaggs relieved Cahill and had much better results than his last outing. In his two innings, he gave up only one hit and had a strikeout. After his appearance, he noted that the difference was that he was simply "more comfortable" and that he was throwing more strikes.
Gibson expanded a little more on the outing of the youngster, noting he "still overthrew" some pitches, but that "his shoulder is sound." He mentioned that he was working on some mechanical things, which Skaggs said was shortening his stride and let his height do more of the work to throw downhill.
Skaggs was acquired by Arizona in the trade with the Angels that sent Haren there. Skaggs said "he grew up" playing with many of the players on Los Angeles. He said it was a great experience to throw against them.
As for the result of the game and the offense, Kirk Gibson explained that he takes "every game personally" and even quipped that struggles like today are why he was going to run up Camelback after the game.
Arizona has two games on Wednesday. Patrick Corbin will get the start against the Padres. Trevor Bauer will work in relief. They also have a split squad night game against the Colorado Rockies.
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