Monday, March 7, 2011

HomeSider Sunday

Former BlueClaws made quite a splash in Florida on Sunday, starting with the split-squad action of the Phillies. In Clearwater, the Phillies defeated the Rays, 5-4, on a game winning RBI single in the bottom of the 9th by Joel Naughton. Naughton, who spent parts of 2 season with the BlueClaws, was making his second appearance of the spring and got the big knock. Earlier, Ryan Howard had belted his 2nd home run and added a single to raise his spring average to .316. Ryan was the replaced by Matt Rizzotti, who smacked a home run of his own to tie the game at 4-4 in the bottom of the 8th, setting up the 9th inning for the dramatic finish. "Rizz" has had a good spring in the big camp; a walk, a double and a home run, 2 RBI in 5 plate appearances. Naughton's heroics made a winning pitcher out of Scott Mathieson, who retired the Rays working a scoreless top of the 9th (1 walk, 1 K). Justin De Fratus worked an inning earlier in the game, allowing a run on 3 hits, striking out 2. Justin has had a little hard luck this spring, but he certainly has not looked intimidated by the experience, so it will really help him develop.

The other half of the Phillies went over to Lakeland and dropped a 2-1 decision to Detroit. Kyle Kendrick, the forgotten one with all the hoop-la over the starting rotation, looked strong in his 3 innings. Kyle retired 9 of 10 hitters he faced, giving up just 1 hit. Mike Stutes gave up the game tying run in the 8th inning on a home run by Bryan Holaday, but struck out the other 3 hitters he faced. Carlos Ruiz was 1 for 2, and was relieved by Tuffy Gosewisch, who had a triple in his only at bat. Harold Garcia struck out in his only appearance at the plate and Freddy Galvis was 0 for 2. The 2 games featured 11 former BlueClaws, but there is more....

Greg Golson got his first hit of the spring, a home run for New York in the Yankees 10-8 win over the Astros.....Anthony Gose and Travis d'Arnaud each struck out in Toronto's 5-0 win over Pittsburgh. Jason Jaramillo was 0 for 2 for the Pirates. Chase d'Arnaud (Travis' brother) was also in that game for the Pirates.

In Arizona, Carlos Monasterios threw 2 impressive innings for the Dodgers, posting 2 zeros and giving up just 2 hits, NO walks, against the Cubs in his best game of the spring. Chicago won the game, 5-3 in 10 innings. The Oakland Athletics split their team (and our boys) on Sunday and defeated Milwaukee 5-4 in Phoenix. Michael Taylor had a walk in 4 plate appearances for Oakland. The other part of Oakland's team went to Peoria and lost a 7-6 decision to the Padres. Josh Outman started this game and gave up 4 runs on 5 hits and 3 walks, recording only 4 outs. Adrian Cardenas got into this one (0 for 2) and played third base for Oakland. Adrian can play third, shortstop and second and could become a valuable player for the A's. At 23 years old now, he seems to me on the brink of a major league career, although maybe not to start 2011.
The second half of the Brewers went into Surprise to take on the Rangers. Zack Segovia pitched through a difficult inning, giving up 2 runs on 3 hits and a walk in a game won 8-1 by Texas.

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