Thursday, February 28, 2008

Feb. 28 -- UN-SAVERY DEBUT

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- So, the Phillies lost today, 11-6 to the Pirates, at Bright House Field. Oh, well. I guess they won't go undefeated this spring.

On the positive side: Ryan Howard smashed a towering home run that cleared the right-field berm and landed somewhere near the traffic on Route 19. ... Pedro Feliz continued his torrid start to the spring with two more hits. He's 4-for-5 in two games. "I figured he was going to make an out sooner or later," Charlie Manuel joked. ... Kyle Kendrick threw three solid innings, generally pitching well except for a towering solo homer by Adam LaRoche.

On the negative side: Touted lefties Joe Savery and Josh Outman got smacked around in their first spring-training games. Savery was close to getting out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth inning after getting Brian Bixley to break his bat on a liner to shortstop. But he gave up a two-run single to No. 9 hitter Josh Wilson and a three-homer to Nate McLouth, a decent left-handed-hitting outfielder who the Phillies tried to acquire in the offseason. Outman allowed four runs in 1-2/3 innings.

Don't want to scoop ourselves here (we'll have more on this in the 50-center tomorrow), but Savery was reflective after he came out of the game. Here's some of what he had to say:

"I'm taking the good with the bad. I'm not happy with the results, obviously, but I learned a lot. I had a couple of strikeouts and a broken bat. I know my stuff is good enough, [but] it's just a matter of learning to locate it and to not to throw any spinners up there.

"It all happened so fast. Now is the time to look at things and think about why you didn't succeed and why things went down the way they did. But if you're out there and you're trying to compete, and if you sit around and feel sorry for yourself while you are out there, it's just going to get worse."


Savery will have a chance for redemption Monday. He's scheduled to start against the Pirates at Bright House, so we'll see if he learns from today's mistakes.

*
Reliever Francisco Rosario signed a split contract that will pay him one salary if he's in the majors and another if he's in the minors. The only unsigned players remaining in camp are Shane Victorino and Cole Hamels. Don't worry. Their contracts will be finalized shortly, I'm sure.

4 comments:

Bananafish said...

Kendrick was able to throw three scoreless inings despite giving up a solo homerun? Fantastic.

Just kidding. I am really enjoying these updates. Thanks.

Scott Lauber said...

bananafish: Oops. Great catch. Ever think of a career as a newspaper copy editor?

Bananafish said...

Thanks, Scott. I do some freelance proofreading for a Philadelphia company, but that's just to make ends meet while in law school.

Anonymous said...

Great, another lawyer. Just what the world needs.