Spring Training Game 26 - Monday Afternoon, March 26th in Clearwater
Record - 10-13-3
One Sentence Summary: Jon Lester and the Red Sox shut out the Phillies as Joe Blanton struggled in one of his final appearances of the spring.
What It Means: I liked the outcome from these two team’s previous meeting much better.
What Went Wrong: The Phils managed just three hits – a double from Freddy Galvis and singles from Pete Orr and Lou Montanez. Nobody on the team has more than two home runs this spring, and this marks the fourth time the Phils have been shut out. But they’ll turn it on once the season starts. (Right?)
Lester struck out 10 in his seven innings of work. Blanton gave up five runs on seven hits (including two home runs) in his five innings of work.
Featured Card: This is ex-Sox and current Phillies closer Jonathan Papelbon's first official Phillies baseball card. The Topps graphic design team did a decent job Photoshopping him into Phillies uniforms for the two photos featured on the card.
I'm still trying to figure out this guy. He made some ill-advised remarks a few weeks ago about Phillies fans knowing the game better than Red Sox fans. Why would he say something like that? And then he had this to say about facing off against his former team in Philly in late May:
"I don't want to hear no texts. I don't want to get no texts. I want to be the texts. You know what I'm saying?"
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| 2012 Topps Heritage #341 |
Get Well Soon: Best of luck to former Phillies closer Ryan Madson. He'll miss the entire 2012 season and undergo Tommy John ligament replacement surgery in his right elbow. Madson had signed a one-year contract with the Reds. This is a tough, tough break for a guy who meant so much to the Phillies over the past five years.
3 comments:
The Madson injury hit hard. Real hard. I hope Sean Marshall can step in to fill the role, and that the Reds aren't foolish enough to try and make Chapman the closer. As much as he's taking home each week, he needs to be a starter. An All-Star starter. A Cy Young contending starter.
JT, The Writer's Journey
Get well soon, Ryan. You'll never have to buy a drink in Philly again, that's for sure.
JT, I assume you're a Reds fan? Ths injury to Madson stinks, but it could be a heck of a lot worse, like he could be in year one of a 5-year, $125 million contract and be on the shelf with a major Achilles tendon injury.
As for Chapman, he's only making $5.4 million a year on average through 2015. (I use the term "only" in the fantasy world of baseball salaries, not that of the real world.) That's middle of the rotation money these days, not All-Star or CYA-contender money. And it's $3 million cheaper than the Reds were paying Madson to close.
Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee had better be CYA-contending starters with their salaries. Chapman seems to me to be signed to a decent deal for the Reds, no?
(Maybe I've been spoiled by the Phillies' largesse of late....)
Clearly that was the most important game of the spring. It really displayed what both teams are made of. In fact, let's just decide the world Series based on that one game.
Don't try to figure out Papelbon. You won't do it. He can pitch, which is good since he's not so much with the talking.
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