Kyle Davies impersonator stymies Phils
March 23 2007
The Phils fell to the
Braves this afternoon, losing 7-4 to drop to 8-14 in spring training.
The Phillies got just three hits, singles from Rollins, Burrell and Karim
Garcia, off of Kyle Davies through six innings. Burrell's single brought in
Utley in the fourth, Chase had walked and moved to second on a ground out.
Davies has thrown to a 1.93 ERA in his four starts this spring after going
3-7 with an 8.38 ERA last season. Many Phillies fans are counting on him to
anchor a wretched bottom of the rotation for the Braves. In his three
starts against the Phils last season he allowed 22 hits, including five home
runs, in 9 2/3 innings while throwing to a 14.60 ERA.
Rollins, Victorino and Utley combined to go 1-for-8 with just the single by
Rollins. All three are hitting well this spring. Rollins' .333 average is
the worst of the trio.
Greg Dobbs hit a three-run homer in the ninth. It
was his fourth of the spring in 43 at-bats.
Garcia was 1-for-4 with two strikeouts and played first base again,
presumably to confirm he could backup there if Coste doesn't start the year
with the Phils.
24-year-old lefty JA Happ got the start for the Phils and was good. He went
five innings, allowing two runs on three hits and three walks while striking
out six. The Braves scored a run against him in each of the first two
innings, but he kept them off the board in his last three. He struck out
six. He's pitched to a 6.06 ERA this spring.
Ryan Madson entered the game in the sixth and shut Atlanta down 1-2-3 to
drop his spring ERA to 2.25. Matt Smith, who has been dealing with a groin
problem, followed Madson. He struck out the first man he faced, but the next
batter followed with a single and Brayan Pena, who leads all of baseball in
the number of times you have to check the spelling of his name to believe
it, socked a two-run homer. It might be close to time to start to worry
about Smith's chances to get people out, although I don't think anyone needs
to worry about his chances to make the team yet.
Alfonseca pitched the eighth and allowed a run on two hits. The run wasn't
earned due to an error by Brennan King.
Speaking of errors, Tom Gordon started the ninth and didn't make it through
with the help of some miserable fielding from the Phils. He struck out the
first man before the next two reached on a walk and a single. The next two
batters reached on Phillies' errors, one from Abernathy and one from Nunez.
Two unearned runs scored on the error by Nunez. Gordon struck out the next
man for the second out of the inning and was replaced by Brett Harker, who
got the last out of the game. Harker is a 22-year-old righty the Phillies
took in the fifth round of the 2005 draft. He threw to a 2.92 ERA in 64
2/3 innings for Lakewood last year.
The Phils play the Reds tomorrow afternoon.