It was a beautiful Friday afternoon at BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, FL with the sun glaring and fans in attendance for the Philadelphia Phillies’ contest against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Philly Cruising Early
In the top of the first, Chase Anderson pitched a 1-2-3 inning and ended up only pitching two full innings.
In the bottom half of the inning, Phillies outfielder Andrew McCutchen kept his at bat alive with two foul balls but swung at a changeup and struck out. Didi Gregorius hit one sharp just past the second baseman that resulted in a single. Bryce Harper smoked a pitch the opposite way to left field for a home run and the Phillies took a 2-0 lead.
In the top of the third inning, Spencer Howard looked amazing on the mound to fill in for Anderson. His fastball was great, limiting batters’ contact.
Archie Bradley came in to pitch in top of the fourth and his breaking ball was fantastic. In the top of the 4th inning, Pirates Wilmer Difo hit one sharply past the second baseman which was the first hit of the day for the Pirates. Phillip Evans walked after looking at a low ball. Anthony Alford hit a grounder to shortstop for out number two. Tony Wolters struck one sharply to second but it was a putout to end the half-inning.
In the bottom of the fifth, McCutchen hit a solo home run to deep left field to make the score 3-0. Hector Neris came in to pitch the bottom.
Phillies Hold It, Close It
Jose Alvarado looked solid and focused on the mound in the top of the sixth inning as he struck out Troy Stokes Jr. with a 93 MPH slider. It was a 1-2-3 half-inning for Alvarado.
In the bottom of the seventh, Philadelphia’s Travis Jankowski got on base with a beautiful rip to left field. It was a pretty swing. Jankowski then stole a base as a pitch went past the catcher. Connor Brogdon came on in the top of the seventh for the Phillies and kept the Pirates off the board.
In the top of the eighth, Pirates infielder Rodolfo Castro grounded out to second base for the first out. Nick Gonzalez struck out swinging for the second out of the inning. Canaan Smith-Njigba struck out swinging to end the half inning. Phillies reliever Sam Coonrod looked great.
In the ninth it was quiet on both sides as nothing big happened, keeping the inning scoreless. The Phils’ JoJo Romero had a great performance by not allowing Pittsburgh to get runners in and to tie the game up at three. The Phillies went on to beat the Pirates 3-0. They are now 3-2 in the Grapefruit League.
Next up: The Phillies will travel to Dunedin, FL to play the 2-2 Toronto Blue Jays at TD Ballpark on Saturday, March 6. First pitch is slated for 1:07 p.m EST.
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Main Image Credit:
Embed from Getty Images
