Defense, ‘Pen Hamstring Phils in Grapefruit Opener

The Phils committed four errors and dropped their Grapefruit League opener against Houston today 8-3.

Positives

Inspite of the loss, the Phils had quite a few brightspots. Cole Hamels dominated for two innings, needing only ten pitches to retire six of seven batters, giving up only one hit. Ben Revere led off the game with a single and stolen base after taking Astros starter Lucas Harrell to a full count. Chase Utley wasted no time scoring Revere from second with a first inning single.

Domonic Brown and Laynce Nix each looked comfortable at the plate and Yuniesky Betancourt went 2-3 with an RBI. Ender Inciarte had a nice at bat in the eighth that led to a walk and Pete Orr hit a solo homer in the eighth as well.

Areas of Opportunity

Defense and the bullpen did the Fightins in. The Phils had four errors which did not include a Michael Young misplay in the first.  The official errors were charged to Erik Kratz, Darin Ruf, Ben Revere, and Michael Martinez.

The bullpen looked like they were focused solely on throwing strikes. However, none of these guys had their best stuff today. Realistically, Jeremy Horst

and Justin De Fratus are the most likely to make the club of the non-Hamels pitchers who threw today but each ran into trouble. Non-roster invitee Jermain Mitchell hit a ninth inning triple but took an awkward route around second base, misplayed a ball in the outfield, and tried to tag up from third on a really shallow fly ball and was thrown out.

The Phillies will play the Tigers tomorrow at Lakeland at 1:05 PM.