After the majority of the Grapefruit League schedule was washed out yesterday, the Phillies were back in action on Tuesday and beat the Tampa Bay Rays 5-4 at Charlotte Sports Park in Port Charlotte, FL to pick up their first win of Spring Training.
Phillies vs Rays recap
Christopher Sanchez made his first start of the spring and looked sharp. According to reports, his fastball was sitting at 97-98 mph. per the in-stadium radar gun, which for the most part is accurate. He had a short leash, but made the most of it, tossing two scoreless innings allowing one hit and striking out three.
Edmundo Sosa got the scoring started for the Phillies with a two-run single scoring Otto Kemp and Johan Rojas who walked and was hit by a pitch respectively by Rays’ Jake Brentz to take a 2-0 lead.
Tampa Bay manufactured a run in its half of the third inning against Joel Kuhnel as one of the Rays’ top prospects, Chandler Simpson, led the inning off with a single. He then stole second and advanced to third on a groundout before Yandy Diaz bounced out to second base to drive Simpson home to make it 2-1 after three innings.
Kemp added to his solid day at the plate with an RBI double in the fourth to score Justin Crawford who reached on a fielder’s choice giving the Phillies a 3-1 lead. In the bottom half of the inning, the Rays sent six men to the plate against Michael Mercado and plated a pair of runs on a Curtis Mead RBI double and an infield single by Jose Caballero to tie the game a 3-3.
Phillies’ reliver Devin Sweet took a liner off the back from Diaz and exited the game in the fifth inning as both offenses over the next two innings.
The Phillies tacked on two more runs in the seventh courtesy of back-to-back RBI singles from Carson Taylor and Rafael Lantigua to make it a 5-3 advantage. Tampa cut the lead to one on a sacrifice fly to cap the scoring.
Jose Cuas came in for the save in the ninth and after hitting the first batter he faced, he got a pop out to second base before inducing a game-ending double play.
Prospect Watch
Aidan Miller got the start and hit seventh in the lineup going 0-for-2 with a walk. Crawford hit right behind Miller and went 0-for-3 with a run scored.
The Phillies are back in action tomorrow when they visit the Toronto Blue Jays in Dunedin with first pitch scheduled for 1:07 p.m. The game will be available to watch with an MLB.Tv subscription, but can listen to the Phillies audio via MLB.com.
Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images
Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images
