Friday, March 23, 2012

2012 Topps Opening Day #183 Cliff Lee

Blue Jays 2, Phillies 0
Spring Training Game 21 - Thursday Afternoon, March 22nd in Dunedin
Record - 9-10-2

One Sentence Summary:  The Phils managed only four hits en route to being shut out by the Blue Jays, 2-0.

What It Means:  With the exception of a few hard hit balls from Jose Bautista, Cliff Lee looked pretty good.  Lee allowed one run on five hits while striking out seven in his six innings of work.

What Went Wrong:  My fear's of a lackluster offense are being realized, albeit in non-meaningful Spring Training games.  The bats were quiet against Brandon Morrow and three Blue Jays relievers.  Carlos Ruiz had a few hits in the loss, but the offense looked sluggish throughout the ballgame.

Other than Lee's fine performance, the only other good news from yesterday was that Ryan Howard appeared without his walking boot for the first time all spring.  Howard is coming back from a nasty ruptured Achilles injury suffered in his final at-bat of the 2011 season.

Featured Card:  This is my favorite card from the 2012 Topps Opening Day Phillies team set.  The photo is perfect for a horizontal lay-out, and there's a good chance this is exactly what Lee's card will look like in Topps Series 2.

Phungo 5:  I'm honored to be the subject of the debut 2012 edition of Phungo 5.  Check it out here.

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