The Phillies and Orioles faced off in an Instructional League game this morning. It ended in a 1-1 tie after nine innings. The Orioles managed 2 hits, one an infield single, and scored an unearned run on a hit batsman, error catching a pickoff throw, and another error on a throw to try and get the runner at third. The Phillies amassed 4 hits, one an infield single, and scored their run on an Andrew Knapp ground out after Williams Astudillo singled to right and moved to third on a passed ball and a balk.

On to the pitchers. (And, player’s dad, if you would like a pitch-by-pitch account of your son’s outing, let me know.)

Matt Imhof pitched the first inning. He threw 11 pitches, 7 for strikes in a 1-2-3 inning. His 10 fastballs ranged from 87-90 mph. He hit 88 mph on half of those pitches and touched 90 mph twice. His one off speed pitch was at 82 mph and was thrown for a ball.

Brandon Leibrandt pitched the second inning. He threw 21 pitches, 13 for strikes. He had a 7-pitch walk, and 6- and 5-pitch strike outs both swinging. He threw 14 fastballs in the 86-89 mph range 7 were at 87 mph. He threw 5 off speed pitches at 80-81 mph, and 1 each at 77 and 78 mph. Of his 13 strikes, 5 were swinging and 5 were called.

David Whitehead pitched the next two innings. He needed only 21 pitches, 16 for strikes and allowed a line drive single to center. His 12 fastballs ranged from 87-92 mph. He threw 5 at 90 mph, 2 at 89 mph, 2 at 88 mph. He topped out at 91 mph and 92 mph once each, and bottomed out at 87 mph once. His off speed pitches look like they have two different ranges, he threw 4 between 79-81 mph, and 5 more between 74-76 mph. Of his 16 strikes, 5 were swinging, 3 were called, and 5 were put in play.

Elniery Garcia pitched the following two innings. He threw 24 pitches, 18 for strikes, allowing an unearned run and hitting a batter. Ten of his 16 fastballs were at 89 mph. He topped out at 91 mph and bottomed out at 87 mph. He threw 3 change ups at 82 mph and 5 off speed pitches between 72-73 mph. Of his 18 strikes, 7 were called and 6 were foul balls

Nefi Ogando threw 18 pitches in a 1-2-3 seventh inning. Twelve of his pitches were for strikes. He threw 13 fastballs at 96-97 mph. His off speed pitch was predominantly at 88 mph. His pitch count was inflated by an 8-pitch at bat that resulted in a 1-3 ground out.

Colton Murray pitched the eighth inning. He threw 17 pitches, 10 for strikes. He walked a batter who was erased by Chace Numata on a steal attempt and an infield single that just eluded him as he ran toward first then died as it reached the first baseman. Murray threw pitches at nine different velocities. He threw 11 fastballs above 90 mph (4 at 94, 1 at 93, 5 at 92, and 2 at 91 mph). He threw a pitch at 89 mph and another at 87 mph. His off speed pitch came in between 79-81 mph.

John Zgardowski threw 17 pitches in a 1-2-3 ninth inning. He threw 13 strikes. Nine of his 11 fastballs were at 92-93 mph. He topped out at 94 mph once and bottomed out at 91 mph once. His off speed pitch came in at 84 mph but touched 86 and 83 mph once each.

The box score looks like this –

• Pitcher               IP    H   R  ER BB SO
• Imhof                1.0    0    0    0    0    1
• Liebrandt        1.0    0    0    0    1    2
• Whitehead      2.0    1    0    0    0    2
• E. Garcia          2.0    0    1    0    0    4
• Ogando            1.0    0    0    0    0    1
• Murray              1.0    1    0    0    1    0
• Zgardowski    1.0    0    0    0    0    2

Two of the four pitchers assigned to the AFL pitched today (Ogando, Murray). Both position players headed to Arizona, Roman Quinn and Logan Moore, were in the starting line up. Quinn played center field and put 3 balls in play, 2 fly outs and a ground out to third. Moore was retired in his 3 at bats on 3 strike outs.

Line up –

• CF – Roman Quinn
• LF – Cord Sandberg
• RF – Aaron Brown
• DH – Willians Astudillo
• 1B – Rhys Hoskins
• DH – Andrew Knapp
• 2B – Derek Campbell
• C – Lance Moore/ Chace Numata
• 3B – Jay Hernandez
• SS – Grenny Cumana
• Venn Biter was inserted to lead off the ninth inning.

All the offensive highlights –

• Cord Sandberg beat out an infield single with one out in the first inning but was stranded.
• With one out in the fifth inning, Astudillo singled down the right field line but the ball bounced off the stands back to the right fielder to hold him at first. He moved to second on a passed ball, and to third on a balk. The Orioles brought the infield in and it almost paid off. Knapp chopped a ball to the second baseman and Astudillo started to retreat to third, but when the ball was mis-handled he scored while Knapp was retired at first.
• Jay Hernandez lined a singled to left field with one out in the sixth. He was erased on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Grenny Cumana. He moved into scoring position by stealing second but advanced no further.
• With two out in the ninth, Numata lined a single to left. Carlos Duran was sent in to pinch run and stole second base. Hernandez walked and Duran stole third on ball four. The game ended on a fly ball to right.

The few offensive highlights were more than compensated for by the great pitching this morning.

Off day tomorrow.