Bullpen Allows Eight, Phils Fall 10-6

The Phillies plated six runs by the third inning but it was not enough to defeat the Twins who overcame the early deficit to win 10-6.

The Good

Honestly, the offense performed about as well as you would have hoped and the Phillies received stellar contributions from back end of the line-up. The Phillies five through nine hitters (Michael Young, Dom Brown, Darin Ruf, John Mayberry, Erik Kratz) all had two hits each including a timely double by Ruf on an off-speed pitch out of the zone that netted him two RBIs. Joe Savery threw 1.2 scoreless innings in relief.

Areas of Opportunity

The story today was the full on assault of Phillies pitching by Aaron Hicks. Hicks smashed three homers off of three different pitchers, including one off of Cliff Lee. Hicks made it easy to see today why both Denard Span and Ben Revere were tradable commodities for the Twins this winter.

The bullpen didn’t protect Lee’s (3.2 IP, 2 HR, 2 ER, 5 Ks) 6-2 lead. Zach Miner allowed four earned on three hits in 1/3 of an inning, while Jeremy Horst allowed one of Hicks’s homers for his earned run. Raul Valdes also allowed two earned via a Hicks homer. Miner, who I thought had a decent shot of making the team, particularly in light of the Michael Schwimer trade, hasn’t been able to put it together for the Phillies thus far in Spring Training. Somewhat surprisingly, Savery has pitched well and has yet to allow an earned run, albeit usually later in the games against lesser hitters.