Courtesy of NYPhilsManiac 19; Insightful as always!

SHANE WATSON:  Watson made his first multi-inning appearance of his brief career by hurling 2 shutout innings.  His first 4 pitches out of the gate were strikes.  He K’d the first guy and got the 2nd on a weak fly to short CF.  He hit the 3rd batter with the first pitch on the foot but got the 4th guy to line out easily to CF.

His second inning went smoothly as well.  The lead off batter hit a single that had eyes and snuck between the 1st baseman and 2nd baseman,  Watson got called for a balk, but a few pitches later he wheeled and picked the runner off 2nd,  From there it was a slow hit GB to third and a lazy fly ball to left.  He showed good poise after the balk rebounding with the pick-off and 2 easy outs. He also showed a good move to 1st base.  He fell behind 3-1 on the last batter, but got the count full before inducing the flyout.  He appeared to throw a curve and changeup but I can’t profess to be an expert on that.

JESEN D-THERRIEN:  JDT actually threw 5 innings though I felt he seemed to tire as early as his 3rd inning.  I was surprised with all the pitchers they have that he went that long.  His first 2 innings went very quickly with 5 groundouts, and a K on what looked like a changeup.  In his 3rd inning, he was way up with a lot of his pitches.  He hit the first batter on the arm.  Even though, he looked wild, the next batter tried to bunt the first pitch but it was foul, after 2 more fastballs way up, Astudillo threw out the runner trying to steal 2nd.  That AB ended with a walk.  He got the next batter to ground to 3rd, Zach  Green threw to Pullin at 2nd for one, but Pullin’s throw was wild and they did not get the DP (runner went to 2nd on the throwing error).  After a WP allowed the runner to get to 3rd, JDT K’d the last batter to strand the runner. Again, I would guess the strikeout pitch was a change.  I felt JDT was very lucky to escape the inning unscathed.  To my surprise, he came out for a 4th (and even 5th) inning of work.  He was again way up in the zone, and fell behind most hitters, but he escaped with only giving up a 2-out walk and single.  In his last inning of work, he got the leadoff guy to pop-up, the 2nd batter swung at a 58 ft curve on a 1-2 offering but it went to the backstop so the runner reached first.  A grounder to SS could’ve been a DP but again Pullin made a poor throw and they only got one out.     The last batter K’d on a curve in the dirt.

KEIVE ROJAS:  Rojas came on in the 8th inning, and after a groundout, he served up a HR to LF that accounted for the Tigers only run.  In his 2nd inning, he gave up a walk but then got a strikeout-throwout DP to help him along.   He ended up getting the win when the Phils scored in the Bottom of the 9th.

Batting:  We had no extra base hits and not too many hard hit balls all day but here is what I saw:

CARLOS TOCCI:  AB#1:  1st pitch off the end of the bat to P, AB#2, He hit one hard and one soft foul ball to the left side and then popped up to 1B. AB#3:  He hit a hard single between 1st baseman and 2nd baseman.  on a base hit to RF, he was thrown out at 3B which surprised me since I would have assumed he would make it, but then the base ump called interference on the SS and awarded Tocci the base.  He scored on a WP to the backstop without a throw, he got a good jump but it was obvious he could make it.  His last AB was a swinging bunt down the 3rd baseline that I thought he would beat out, but he didn’t.  He did fine in GF but all plays hit to him were routine.

ANDREW PULLIN:  AB#1:  He swung and missed on 2 high fastballs including strike 3.  AB#2: Ripped a liner to RF but right to the right-fielder.  AB#3: Fouled off a few pitches before grounding a single between 1B and 2B.  AB#4: Grounded back to the box- not hit very hard.  He made errant throws on 2 potential DP’s in the field so I would say he is a work in progress at best at 2nd base,

ZACH GREEN:  AB#1: Blown away by high fastball  AB#2:  Swinging bunt down the 3rd baseline, thrown out by half a step.  AB#3:  Locked up on an 0-2 curveball and K’d looking.  AB#4: singled on a weak grounder right up the middle,  the SS dove and knocked it down but had no play.  I was very impressed with Green at third base.  He has a very strong arm and good hands,  There was one chopper that he bobbled on an in-between hop, but he was able to recover and still throw out the runner.

DYLAN COZENS:  AB#1: Battled back form 1-2 to work out a walk (fouled off a few pitches as well).  AB#2:  Poped out th shallow RF.  AB#3:  Ground single into RF.  AB#4: Dylan came up with 1st and 2nd and no outs in Bottom 9.  I was curious if Roly would ask him to bunt.  He squared at the first 2 pitches but did’nt offer.  On the 1-1 pitch he squared early and pulled the bat back but grounded a foul ball to the right side.  He singled up the middle on the 1-2 pitch but it wasn’t hit hard.  The SS knocked it down but had no play.  For some reason, Cozens reminds me of Scott Rolen (though he bats lefty).  I guess it is just his appearance, and the way he carries himself.  I No report on his defense since he was DH.

WILLIANS ASTUDILLO:  Two things stood out to me:  He is an excellent bunter, and he has a good arm throwing to 2nd.  He gunned down both would-be base-stealers.  He got a bunt single for the Phils first hit.  In the 9th inning, he laid down a perfect sac bunt and somehow avoided the tag and was safe at 1st with a single.  He definitely has a good eye at the plate.