Clearwater Report: Phillies Open With a Loss and Wigginton at First?

Today opened the Grapefruit League schedule for the Philadelphia Phillies. They took on the New York Yankees in the first of their three game series. This opener was played in front of 10,539 spectators at Bright House Field in Clearwater, Florida. The Yankees took this one from the Phillies by a score of 8-5.

This is a spring training game, so the final results are mostly irrelevant. What is more important is individually how players fared, especially the younger players. Let’s start out though by looking at a few veterans. Jim Thome was 0-2 today as the designated hitter. Right fielder Hunter Pence went 1-2 with a two-run homerun in the first inning. John Mayberry Jr. is not much of a veteran, but he has good major league experience. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem that way today. Mayberry went 0-3 today. He had two fly-outs and grounded into a double play. In those three poor at-bats, he managed to leave four runners on base. Looking at the younger guys, 25-man roster hopeful, Dom Brown started in left field today; too bad he had to swing the bat too. Brown was 0-2 today with two groundouts. Overall it was a tough day hitting for the Phillies as they batted a measly .229 as a team, left eight runners on base and were 1-7 with runners in scoring position.

The 82 degree temperature for game time with abundant sunshine made it a great day for sun-screen. What didn’t make it a great day for pitchers were the 20 mph winds that were blowing out towards left field all game. Those gusts made any ball hit considerably high in the air a challenge to judge and made any fly ball a threat to leave the field of play. Cole Hamels started the game going two innings. He gave up three hits and one earned run in his Spring Training 2012 debut. Dave Bush followed Hamels and went another two innings for the Phillies. He had a similar outing as Hamels as he gave up one earned run off a solo-homerun to Curtis Granderson. Closer Jonathan Papelbon entered the game to get some work in. He pitched a clean inning and headed to the showers. Then the disaster started.

Dontrelle Willis came in to pitch the sixth inning. The 2003 NL Rookie of the Year took the loss in today’s contest, but didn’t do that much damage. Willis gave up two hits and allowed one earned run. Former Padre, Chad Qualls, took the mound in the seventh. He gave up three hits and three earned runs. That inning cushioned the Yankees’ lead and they never looked back. Raul Valdes pitched the eighth frame cleanly and Mike Stutes finished things off in the ninth inning. He gave up two earned runs on two hits and allowed one walk. Pitching didn’t look superb today for the Phightins, but we will chalk this one up as tough conditions and first game jitters.

On a brighter note, the Phillies defense looked clean compared to the Yankees as New York had three fielding errors to Philadelphia’s zero. Former Phillie and Phan favorite, Raul Ibanez, got a great ovation when the started line-ups were announced as he started the game as the DH. Ibanez was 1-3 with an RBI double in the first inning. The Phillies and the Yankees square off again tomorrow at 1pm down in Tampa at George Steinbrenner Field.

 If you watched today’s contest on Comcast SportsNet, then you would have heard the discussion about Ryan Howard being on the disabled list and likely not returning till June. Possible replacements were discussed and Ty Wigginton was brought up often. It seems that even with Thome’s constant exercise and work, he just won’t be able to handle more than one or two games at first in a week. Most of the workload will be shared between Wigginton and Mayberry. Mayberry is projected to be the starting left fielder, so he won’t have many starts at first base. It seems as if Wigginton will be the man over at first base, the majority of the time. For once the Phillies have a packed bench that is fighting for spots as utility man on the MLB roster. Wigginton might just benefit from Howard’s absence.

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