I thought the view from the top would be better. To avoid frying in the Florida sun (again), I stood in the shade for the early part of the Phillies game against the Orioles on Wednesday. In doing so, I noticed that the Phils' chairman and partial owner Bill Giles was sitting sixteen rows behind the dugout near the aisle. I guess I figured he'd have much better seats than that, but a seat is a seat, I guess. I'm sure Mr. Giles wishes he had stayed to watch the end of the game, too.
The Phillies put a run across the board in the first after Ryan Howard doubled to deep right center field following a Raul Ibanez single. The Orioles rolled off six runs and sixteen hits against Roy Oswalt and six relievers. After the back-to-back hits in the first inning, the Phils' bats went practically silent (again), notching only three more hits through the seventh inning. Delwyn Young had an RBI single in the eighth to make it 6-2, Orioles, and the Phils really made it interesting in the bottom of the ninth. Michael Martinez and John Mayberry, Jr. led off with back-to-back home runs and Pete Orr quickly followed with a triple to the wall. Orr scored on a wild pitch to make it 6-5. Unfortunately, the Phils could not get any closer and the game ended with a ground-out to second with the tying run on second base.
As of when I left Florida, the Phillies were 2-3 on the young spring training season, but there are great expectations for the season for those who will make the team. I have great memories from my trip to Clearwater. Let's hope we all have some great memories of the season to come...
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