White Sox Rally to Tie Reds

Brandon Phillips got his first two hits of the spring, including a two-run home run.

The Reds Gold Glove secondbaseman, was hitless in his first 14 at bats this spring. He hit a sharp single to leftfield scored Drew Stubbs with the first run of the game, off Chicago White Sox starter, John Danks.. .
He added a two-run home run off J.J. Putz.

Joey Votto was also struggling at .067 but he collected two hits, including an RBI single. That hit came after firstbaseman Dayan Viciedo lost Votto's routine pop foul in the high sky. Danks shrugged it off as one of those spring training occurences.

He had his own performance problem with Cincinnati's lefthanded hitters. "I've been concentrating on getting my curveball over and getting lefthanded hitters out," Danks said. "This is the part of spring training that it gets a little monotonous. You have to catch yourself and make sure you don't go through the motions. My line doesn't look real well but we got done what we wanted to." Danks will be in the White Sox starting rotation barring injury.

Cincinnati starter, Matt Maloney, on the other hand is in a tight competition for the Reds fifth starting spot with a host of pitchers, including Cuban sensation, Aroldis Chapman.

"I'm taking it one day at a time. I've learned from the last two spring that the more I think about things I can't control the worse, I'm going to be," Maloney said. "There's good competition. A lot of dynamics between all the pitchers. The competition is nice to see. Sometimes it can put a little pressure on guys but you see what people are made of when they're put in a situation like that. I think it will be good for the team."

Putz, the White Sox free agent signing this offseason, allowed his first runs of the spring. He had thrown one scoreless inning in each of his first three appearances.

The Reds entered the ninth with a 5-1 lead.

Reds prospect, Jordan Smith got the first two outs in the top of the ninth. Then he lost control of the game with a walk to Jordan Danks, who is John Danks brother.

Danks took second on defensive indifference.

C.J Retherford singled to score Danks. Steffen Gartrell doubled scoring Retherford. Donny Lucy doubled. Alejandro De Aza douvled to tie the game.

"It shows you the importance of the walk. Even if you have a big lead you don't want to put runners on," Dusty Baker said. " He'll learn from this. He has the stuff and doesn't like to get hit. But if he's going to be the closer, he has to learn."

"Brandon got going today. I knew he didn't have a hit but he was hitting the ball well. He wasn't just topping the ball."

"Maloney threw well. Justin Lehr was ok. I've seen him sharper. LeCure and Wells threw the ball better. So, did Smith before he walked the guy."