Tribe starter Herrmann struggles

Associated Press

GOODYEAR, ARIZ.

Patrick Corbin was nine pitches and seven days away from completing his final tune up.

Arizona’s scheduled opening day starter was scheduled to throw 100 pitches, but felt tightness in his left forearm on the 91st pitch in the Diamondbacks’ 4-2 victory over Cleveland on Saturday.

Corbin left with a 2-2 count on Cleveland’s David Adams with one out in the seventh and immediately rode back to Arizona’s training facility at Salt River.

Corbin struck out seven and walked none in 6 1/3 innings, his final outing before starting the season opener next Saturday in Australia against Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw. The left-hander limited Cleveland to two runs — none earned — on 10 hits.

The Indians designated this a bullpen day, using seven pitchers.

Mike Aviles went 3 for 3 with an RBI double for Cleveland.

Cleveland’s Frank Herrmann, who is 50 weeks removed from right elbow reconstructive surgery, didn’t make it through the first inning. He gave up home runs to Paul Goldschmidt and Martin Prado.

“It was Frank’s second outing. It is probably hard for him to be happy about it,” manager Terry Francona said. “From our side of it he continues to grow. It’s going to take a while. He just needs some reps.”

The six Indians pitchers that followed Herrmann combined for 6 1/3 scoreless innings. John Axford, who is the likely closer and setup man Vinnie Pestano were in the game earlier than normal.

“It was kind of nice the way it worked out,” Francona said. “Axford and Vinnie faced their main lineup. That’s hard to do in spring training.

Nick Hagadone pitched 2 1/3 innings. Axford, Pestano, Marc Rzepczynski, Josh Outman, Blake Wood and Scott Barnes pitched an inning each.

“Rzep [Rzepczynski] has quickly earned trust here,” Francona said. “It doesn’t have to be just left-handers. He has big movement he can spin his breaking ball. He can limit damage.”

Carlos Santana has shown that he can play third base for the Indians. Yet, the team wants to keep his catching skills intact.

“Carlos is willing to try going back and forth from catcher to third base,” Francona said. “We will let him catch a bullpen, probably Monday. We’ll let him catch Tuesday. It’s not etched in stone. We are trying to balance the amount of work he’s done to play third. He’s out there every morning. Doing the catching if he can handle it, it is kind of a unique skill set. He’s been a catcher for six years and a third baseman for half a season in winter ball and seven games here.”