Phillies 4,
Orioles 4 (7 Innings)
Spring Training Game 2 - Monday Afternoon, March 1st in Clearwater
Record - 0-1-1
One Sentence Summary: The Phillies and Orioles played to a 4-4, 7 inning tie in front of 1,886 mostly masked fans in Clearwater.
What It Means: Fans returned to Clearwater for the first time since spring training was abruptly halted almost a year ago due to increasing pandemic concerns and the looming lockdown. This game was also televised, giving me a reason to block off my work calendar on Monday afternoon with "Spring Development Meeting" from 1 to 4.
What Happened: Aaron Nola started and pitched two innings, allowing a two-run home run to DJ Stewart in the first. The Orioles scored two unearned runs in the fifth off Ramon Rosso, with a Nick Maton error contributing to the scoring. Andrew Knapp hit a ground rule double to left (lost in the sun by Ryan Mountcastle) in the first, plating two. Catcher Rodolfo Duran, serving as a DH in the game, had two hits.
Featured Card: Non-roster invitee Matt Joyce impressed with a third inning home run and a nice diving catch in right field. Joyce came up with the Tigers in 2008, and he's been appearing on baseball cards regularly ever since. Shown above is his 1965 Topps-inspired card from the 2014 Topps Heritage set.
Camp Head Count: 73 - We're going to be holding steady at 73 for at least a week or so. But I do have an important uniform number update, for those of us who are interested in that sort of thing. In
mid-February, I posted a summary of the new uniform assignments, noting that several respectable numbers were still available. Two weeks later, and with the strange exception of
#39 and
#43, all numbers have now been assigned. Since that update, the Phillies have assigned new numbers to Jeff Mathis (#8), Travis Jankowski (#9), Brad Miller (#13), Bryan Mitchell (#49), Tony Watson (#52) and JD Hammer (#64). Hammer moves down a notch from #65, his old number, as that was claimed by new pitching coach Caleb Cotham.
I've also cobbled together the uniform numbers for the 20 mini-camp invitees, shown here. Strangely enough, the Phillies have issued #94 twice - to infield prospect Luis Garcia and also to bullpen coach David Lundquist. Mike Calitri, the team's quality assurance coach, is the only person without a number so far (to my knowledge) so perhaps he ended up with either #39 or #43.
