Quick Spring Recap: Jays beat Phillies

Mar 25, 2023 - 12:52 AM

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Phillies 3 Jays 6

Well, Alek Manoah looks ready to start the season.

He went 6 innings plus a batter. Allowed just 3 hits and 2 walks with 6 strikeouts. Very little was hit hard off him. Gameday had him at 80 pitches, so he was right where he should be coming into his Opening Day start. He gave up a walk to start the seventh, and that runner came around to score, so 1 earned for Alek.

I saw he was in the low-90s with the fastball, 90 to 93, but then he never got into trouble where you felt he had to throw one by a batter.

After Alek:

• Anthony Bass: Got the first two outs of the seventh but game up 2 hits (double and single, bringing home the inherited runner), with a strikeout.
• Trevor Richards: Got the last out of the seventh on a strikeout. He didn’t get much help from the minor leaguers, who entered the game in the eighth. Two errors behind him cost him an unearned run (throwing errors on Tucker Toman and Estivan Machado). He did get two outs, but even those showed some poor play by our infield. Machado was slow to first on a 6-3 ground out (called out, but replay showed the runner safe and a double play ball that was turned too slow by Miguel Hiraldo and Machado, so turned into a force at second
• Trent Thornton: Came in to get the last out of the eighth. After seeing the infield defense, Trent decided to go with a strikeout to end the inning.
• Yimi Garcia: Pitched the ninth. He gave up a hard-hit double to Kody Clemens. Clemens then would score when he stole third, and Rob Brantly threw over the third baseman. More bad defense from guys who aren’t making the team. Yimi got a strikeout and then gave up two seeing-eye singles to bring the tying run to the plate. But a fly-out and a pop-up down the line that Peyton Williams playing first made a nice over-the-shoulder catch on.

Batters:

The star offensive player was Daulton Varsho, who went 2 for 2 with a triple and a walk. His bat looked quick. I haven’t seen much of the spring, but Varsho’s numbers look bad. But there was a note that he had been working on the swing and didn’t feel like his ‘top and bottom halves were in sync’. Now is the time to get the swing going.

He also had a very nice throw from left field, relaying to Matt Chapman, to throw out Derrick Hall trying to score from second on a single. I didn’t think they had a shot at the runner, but a very good relay got Hall easily.

Kevin Kiermaier also had 2 hits in 3 at-bats, single and double.

Others:

• George Springer: 1 for 4, single.
• Bo Bichette: 0 for 4, 1 k.
• Vlad Guerrero: 1 for 3, strikeout. Hard hit double, k.
• Brandon Belt: 1 for 4, double, k.
• Alejandro Kirk: 1 for 4, 2 k.
• Matt Chapman: 1 for 4, 1 k. I hadn’t liked his at-bats, but he singled in his third one.
• Whit Merrifield: 1 for 2, double, walk.
• Peyton Williams: 1 for 1, double. He is a big guy and crushed his double to the wall in right.

Of note: a few strikes and balls were handed out because of ‘time clock violations’. That’s going to be annoying if it continues into the season.