Philadelphia Phillies face humiliating 2-10 defeat against Toronto Blue Jays - MLB Update
Philadelphia Phillies experience a humiliating 2-10 defeat at the hands of Toronto Blue Jays at Florida Auto Exchange Stadium in Dunedin, Florida on March 18, 2012 in their Spring Training Grapefruit League contest as ace Cole Hamels concedes five runs in
just over three innings.
If Phillies’ pitchers did not rise to the occasion, neither did their batters show any resistance against the onslaught. As it happened, shortstop, Jimmy Rollins, went scoreless in three at bats, hitting only for once and second baseman Kevin Frandsen missing
two of his at bats.
Only Shane Victorino, their centre-fielder, was able to score a run while managing two hits in three at bats.
Most of hits coming off Phillies proved dead rubbers as only two RBIs were generated during the whole nine innings, much lower than the Blue Jays saw from their batters who contributed 10 RBIs.
Blue Jays’ shortstop, Yunel Escobar found two hits in four at-bats while bringing two RBIs and striking two hits. Lead was accelerated to an unassailable level as soon as their right fielder Jose Bautista took over the plate.
He added three RBIs in four at-bats and completed his own one run. Last nail in Phillies’ coffin was put in when Yan Gomes came in and thrashed three hits while contributing three RBIs and making two of his own runs.
Hamels is one of those pitchers Phillies are going to count on heavily in the season. As he was easily roughed up by batters on the mound today, he will be trying to get his rhythm back.
One of the reasons, as he acknowledged later, behind his poor performance is too many experiments he was trying to practice there. Not keen to read batters, he was more interested in throwing pitches of different varieties.
"It's all about fine-tuning now, to be able to throw all of your pitches where you want to," Hamels said. "It's nice to know you can go out there and be free and easy and build up the arm strength that you have to have. I feel I'm getting there."
It is more the ease with which Phillies lent themselves to defeat that will hurt manager Charlie Manuel, than its affect on their table position. As everything can be condoned for as long as it is Spring Training, never can he afford to turn a blind eye
on weak-links conspicuous during the play.
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