Towers Rocked in Vegas, Dodgers Fall to Reds

The Dodger pitchers had a stretch of 11 straight batters retired tonight, but unfortunately it came after Josh Towers gave up 10 runs in his four innings of work, as the Dodgers lost to the Reds, 12-4 at Cashman Field in Las Vegas.  Towers, who was marginally still alive in the fifth starter competition before tonight, almost certainly punched his ticket to Albuquerque by giving up nine runs in his first 16 batters faced.  Including his outing in Taiwan, Towers gave up 22 hits and 16 runs (15 earned runs) in 17 innings of work this spring.

Carlos Monasterios, pitching in back-to-back days for the second time in a week, retired the Reds in order in the fifth inning.  This is a ridiculously small sample size, but since moving from the starter's reps to more of a bullpen schedule, Monasterios has been more ground ball heavy:

Ramon Ortiz pitched yet another scoreless inning, lowering his spring ERA to 1.08.  Justin Miller followed Ortiz with a scoreless inning of his own, striking out all three batters he faced.

After an unseasonably cold and windy night in Las Vegas, the Dodgers return home tonight, and will play three games in Southern California to end their exhibition season:

Hiroki Kuroda is also scheduled to pitch Saturday's game.

Opening day rosters don't have to be submitted until Sunday at noon, but the Dodgers will likely finalize their roster Saturday, as they are scheduled to fly to Pittsburgh Saturday night after the game against the Angels.

Tonight's Box Score