March Madness not withstanding, it was a wild and wonderful day in Dunedin, Florida for former BlueClaws. It started off with Cole Hamels on the mound and he was his usual dominant self for the first 4 innings. He began to tire in the fifth and was removed with 1 out in the 6th. His final line was 5 earned runs, all in the 5th and 6th, 9 hits, 3 strike outs, including blowing away Frank Thomas on a fastball in the heart of the strike zone. Cool Cole will make one more start in Florida before he gets the ball in game #2 of the regular season. Ryan Howard picked up an RBI, his 11th, with a bases loaded walk, and Carlos Ruiz had 2 doubles, driving in a run and scoring one. All of this has become routine for Phillies fans.
What was not routine was Jason Donald coming in to replace Jimmy Rollins after J-Roll got his 3 at bats. With the Phillies ahead 7-2 in the top of the sixth, JD came to bat with runners on second and third and I said to my wife, "wow, a base hit here and he can drive in 2 runs". Well, Jason took the first pitch from Brandon League, a fast ball out over the plate, and hit a line drive over the right-center field fence for a 3-run homer!! Then, in the 8th inning, he came to bat again with 2 on and nobody out and belted that one over the left field wall for ANOTHER 3 runs!! 2 swings, 6 RBI and a memory to last a lifetime . If that was not enough for BlueClaw fans, 2006 SAL batting champion Mike Spidale got into the act with a double off the center field wall in his only at bat of the game. The Phillies won the game 15-7, with 8 of the RBI going to former Lakewood stars.
In a game that is still going on at this time, original BlueClaw Taylor Buchholz has pitched 2 scoreless innings in relief for Colorado against the Dodgers. This lowers his ERA to 1.74 this spring.
I am still awaiting word from Clearwater on the cuts in minor league camp, and will post as soon as I hear.
No comments:
Post a Comment