Indians tied by K.C.; Bucs win

ASSOCIATED PRESS

SURPRISE, Ariz. — Oddly enough, both starting pitchers were happy after Cleveland and Kansas City slugged their way to a 28-hit, 9-9 tie Tuesday afternoon.

Cleveland right-hander Anthony Reyes, who was shut down last September by a sore elbow, is encouraged that something new he’s trying will work.

Kansas City’s Zack Greinke spent most of his three innings working on his changeup and thought it was coming along.

Alex Gordon hit a grand slam off struggling Cleveland reliever Edward Mujica and Jhonny Peralta had three hits and four RBIs for the Indians before the game was called after 10 innings.

Reyes, slated to be Cleveland’s fourth starter, went two innings in his first start of the spring and gave up three hits and no runs, with a pair of strikeouts.

“It feels like it’s been a while,” he said. “It’s a matter of shaking the rust off. It’s about there.”

Reyes was 2-1 with a 1.83 ERA in six starts with the Indians last September when his elbow injury persuaded him to call it a year. Now he’s moved from the right side of the rubber to the middle.

“This will help me to drop my arm back and take pressure off my elbow,” he said. “It felt pretty good. I think I can be more efficient.”

Greinke, who signed a $38 million contract during the offseason, gave up four hits and four runs, including Peralta’s towering three-run homer in the third.

“For the most part, the stuff was pretty good. Just the location wasn’t that good,” he said. “The pitch to Peralta was really bad. But I was mostly working on the changeup. A lot of them were good. A couple not so good. The pitch to Peralta, you can’t make that pitch to him. You’re never going to get away with that to him no matter how hard you throw.”

Mujica, competing for the last job in the bullpen, is 0-2 with a 19.64 ERA in three appearances. The right-hander has allowed eight runs and nine hits in 3 2-3 innings, including four homers.

“It looks like he’s trying to do too much,” Indians manager Eric Wedge said. “His ball is up. He’s throwing hard, but he doesn’t have the location he needs to have.”

Pirates 5, Netherlands 4

BRADENTON, Fla. — Sidney Ponson looks at the World Baseball Classic as one big job interview.

Ponson, a free-agent who has won just 14 games over the past three years, has not yet signed with a major league team for 2009. The right-hander hopes to attract attention by pitching for Netherlands in the WBC.

He got off to a rocky start Tuesday, giving up three runs and five hits over three innings against Pittsburgh.

“So far, nobody has called,” Ponson said. “I definitely don’t want to hang up the spikes just yet. I think I still have a lot of baseball in me.”