Major League Baseball

Padres 10, Reds 4

Published Mar. 26, 2011 1:10 a.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

Edinson Volquez realizes the Cincinnati Reds will need a lot from the starting pitchers at the start of the season. No matter who those pitchers are, in fact.

Volquez threw five shaky innings in a tuneup for his start on opening day, and the San Diego Padres beat Cincinnati 10-4 Friday.

Volquez allowed three runs on nine hits and four walks in his final outing before facing Milwaukee next week but he has his health.

''I felt great,'' Volquez said. ''My arm feels good. Close to where I was last year. I'm very happy. The last inning my delivery was better.''

The Reds, already without Johnny Cueto, found out pitcher Homer Bailey will be on the disabled list to begin the season.

''Johnny is out and now Homer. We need some help,'' Volquez said.

Volquez is healthy and ready to pitch in.

''Volquez looked pretty good,'' Reds manager Dusty Baker said. ''At first he was a little erratic but he settled down.''

The Reds came into camp with a wealth of young pitchers. Baker dreaded the day he had to make cuts.

''It won't be easy deciding who we keep and telling them why they didn't make the club,'' Baker said earlier in the spring.

Now the numbers are a big benefit.

''It's that depth I was talking about earlier,'' Baker said. ''I didn't think we'd have to call upon it so soon but we'll get them right and look at it in a positive way.''

Ryan Ludwick homered and Jorge Cantu had three hits for the Padres. San Diego broke a 3-all tie in the seventh with four runs as Reds backups lost two fly balls in the sun and committed an error.

Cantu was hitting just .205 coming in but leads the team with 12 RBIs.

Casey Kelly, who was reassigned to minor league camp on March 15, started for San Diego. The 21-year-old acquired in a trade with Boston for Adrian Gonzalez allowed three runs in four innings.

''A couple of pitches got away from him but his body of work was good,'' San Diego manager Bud Black said. ''Like we've seen all spring, he looked poised, composed on the mound.''

NOTES: San Diego released Kevin Frandsen, who was trying to win the backup shortstop job as a non-roster player. ''We put a lot of time and evaluation into this,'' Black said. ''We felt it was the right time to do this.'' ... Reds 3B Scott Rolen, hit by a pitch on Thursday, will rest his sore left elbow Friday and probably Saturday. ... Padres LHP Wade LeBlanc was scheduled to pitch a minor league game against Triple-A Tacoma.

share

Get more from Major League Baseball Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

Major League Baseball