Monday, March 21, 2016

2016 Topps Heritage #129 Cesar Hernandez

Phillies 5Astros 4
Spring Training Game 20 - Sunday Afternoon, March 20th in Clearwater
Record - 13-5-2

One Sentence Summary:  Jeremy Hellickson and Cesar Hernandez starred in the Phillies 5-4 win over the Astros.

What It Means:  Sure, it's just spring training, but it's a whole lot more fun to write these game summary posts following a win than it is following a loss.

What Happened:  Hernandez hit a lead-off home run in the first, singled home Cedric Hunter in the fifth and doubled home David Lough in the seventh.  He also scored the eventual winning run on Freddy Galvis' sac bunt.  Hellickson pitched five scoreless, no-hit innings, walking three and striking out six.

Astros reliever Ken Giles made his first appearance against his former team, allowing two runs on three hits but also striking out two.

Featured Card:  I'm giving Hernandez the card here since I suspect/hope Hellickson will be starring in more games this season than the current starting second baseman.  Hernandez has appeared in the Phillies team issued sets since 2013 but this is first mainstream, non-minor league baseball card.  It's strange that Topps would list Hernandez's position as shortstop on this card.  In 2015, he appeared in 88 games at second base (including 75 starts), 10 games at third base and just 12 games at short.

Camp Head Count:  50

2 comments:

John Bateman said...

I have Cesar on my bench on a lot of my fantasy teams, I am speculating he will have a big year.

Jim said...

Let's hope so!