All eyes on Luis Castillo this afternoon as the Phils face the Rays, giving fans a chance to see just how much speed and defensive range the 35-year-old Castillo has lost. We won’t know anything for sure from a single game, but one thing is for sure and that’s that there will be a whole lot more people who have an opinion on the matter before the day is done.
Yesterday the Phils beat the Blue Jays 5-4 to improve to 17-9 in official spring action.
Lee started the game for the Phils and went six innings, allowing a pair of runs on four hits and two walks. Rajai Davis led off the bottom of the first with a triple that led to the first run and Juan Rivera hit a solo homer off of him in the third. Lee has a 4.74 ERA and a 1.21 ERA through five spring starts.
Kendrick and Romero followed Lee and each threw a scoreless inning. Kendrick has allowed 15 hits in 13 innings this spring, but walked just one. Romero has a 2.57 ERA and a 1.43 ratio in seven innings.
Baez started the ninth with a 5-2 lead and allowed singles to the first three men he faced, making it 5-3 with men on first and third before getting Ryan Budde swinging for the first out. Corey Patterson followed that with another single and it was 5-4 with men on first and second. Baez got Jonathan Diaz to hit into a double-play to end the game. He has now thrown to a 2.53 ERA with a 1.22 ratio in 10 2/3 innings.
Ibanez hit a three-run homer in the first to give the Phils an early lead. It was the only extra-base hit of the day for the Phils. Francisco was 3-for-3 in the game.
Mayberry 0-for-3 with two strikeouts. 278/350/630 in 54 at-bats. Orr 0-for-1 to drop his line to 316/316/553 in 38 at-bats. Barfield played center field and went 1-for-4. 325/356/450 in 40 at-bats. He has seen recent action at both third and center, positions he doesn’t really play. Martinez was 1-for-3 with a single and an RBI. 278/298/444. Young was 0-for-1 and has seen his line fall all the way to 280/321/380 as his at-bats have dropped off significantly.
The Phillies didn’t draw a walk in the game.
Oswalt will start today’s game.
Lidge allowed a hit in a scoreless inning in a minor league game yesterday and may pitch in an official spring game tomorrow.
March 23rd, 2011 on 5:18 pm
So the positive of today’s game is that Castillo didn’t commit an error?
March 23rd, 2011 on 7:04 pm
I think that might be it. That and Oswalt lived through it. Castillo apparently hit the ball hard in one of his at-bats, but lined out.
March 23rd, 2011 on 9:11 pm
I think that Charlie might agree. It is hard to imagine that he is a whole lot of happy about the offense. Time has not improved it over last year, has it.
March 23rd, 2011 on 9:18 pm
Sadly it’s almost surely gotten worse. The offense was good last year (with the possible exception of the playoffs). Hope I’m wrong, but it’s going to be a lot worse in 2011. So let’s hope they can pitch.