Philadelphia Phillies face 2-3 loss against Pittsburgh Pirates in Spring Training 2012 - MLB Update
Cliff Lee gives up three runs in over four innings as Philadelphia Phillies face a 2-3 defeat against Pittsburgh Pirates at McKechnie Field, Bradenton in Florida on March 16, 2012 during their Spring Training Grapefruit League contest.
If it was not for two runs coming off late in the ninth from Hector Luna and Lou Montanez at the pitches of Pirates' closer Bryan Morris, Phillies will easily finish with no score. As both runs were unearned and thus were more the result of fielding errors
than hitting power of their batters, Phillies in stricter terms received nothing from their batters.
However looking at the way their two pitchers, Lee and Kyle Kendrick threw immense number of pitches without giving up on exhaustion, they can take lot of positives from the game. So was energy left with Lee that he went on to claim later that he will throw
as many as 100 more pitches if he was asked.
"I'm right where I need to be," he said. "It's just a matter of getting to where I'm locating more consistently. And today I did that better than I have my previous outings."
Kendrick went through scoreless while spending over three innings on the mound, along with claiming five strike-outs in the process.
Pirates’ starter, Kevin Correia, ran through Phillies cheaply and while not conceding a run in four innings, he brought two strike-outs and gave one hit. Excluding Morris who came at the end, all the pitchers following Correia went scoreless.
"It was just a matter of trying to be a little more efficient," Correia said. "I think I've thrown all right my other outings. I think my pitch count was a little higher than I wanted it to be in my previous outings in spring training. Today, I was a lot
more efficient."
Phillies’ right fielder Juan Pierre wasted all his four at-bats with no hits and just similar went with Hunter Pence who faced three at-bats.
Their second baseman, Kevin Frandsen, added one RBI in one hit he managed out of three at-bats he faced.
After the loss, Phillies position in Spring Training stands such as that out of 14 games they have played they recorded a defeat in eight. What positive they can draw from their Spring Training however is the fact that they are the fourth highest in Grapefruit
League in terms of runs scored (71), succeeded only by Toronto Blue Jays, Detroit Tigers and Pittsburgh Pirates who have scored 89, 87 and 77 respectively.
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