I hadn’t been to a XST game in a couple weeks, so I was surprised to see Jake Sweaney starting in center field. Cord Sandberg was in right, Mitch Walding was at third, and Andrew Knapp was one of the designated hitters. Left-hander Denton Keys got the start.

Keys threw about 70 pitches in 4 innings of work. He was around the strike zone with some nice movement on his off speed pitches. His fast ball was measured in the 87-88mph range. He scattered 4 hits thru his first 3 innings allowing 1 run while walking 2 and striking out one. He picked up his 2nd strike out in the fourth inning, but gave up 3 runs on a no-doubt-about-it home run and a wind-aided two-run home run.

The Phillies had at least one hit in each of the first 3 innings – singles by Sandberg, Knapp, Herlis Rodriguez, and Sweaney – before breaking out for 3 runs in the fourth inning. Walding led off with a double to left then Knapp grounded to short. The shortstop attempted to throw out Walding at third but made a poor throw. Deivy Grullon followed with a double to score their first run. Trey Williams singled to drive in their second run. Rodriguez collected his second hit on a bunt he beat out for a hit while scoring Grullon with their third run. The inning ended when Williams strayed too far off second and was picked off by the catcher. Rodrigues alertly moved up to second during the abbreviated 2-4-5 rundown. However, Rodriguez was later called out for leaving second base too too early when he tried to advance on a fly ball to right.

Recently signed outfielder Adam Loewen took the mound for the top of the fifth inning. The lefty threw 32 pitches in two innings of work. After a first pitch fly out to right, he allowed runners on a double and single. But got out of the mess with a 3-2 strike out and a ground out to short. He struck out the side in the sixth. He was at 88mph for his fast ball. His most effective pitch looked like a change up that had batters swinging over his pitches. All 4 of his strike outs were swinging strike outs.

Elniery Garcia and Wil Morris each pitched 1-2-3 innings to close out the Blue Jays. Both threw in the 87-88mph range.

Meanwhile, the offense went dormant after the fourth inning. They had 4 base runners on 2 walks and 2 fielding errors, but couldn’t get the hit that would push across the tying run. In thru XST fashion, The Jays rolled one inning when the Phillies had runners on the corners and later played only the top of the eighth inning so that Morris could get his work in.

When I arrived at the Complex, Darin Ruf and Roman Quinn were taking batting practice on Schmidt Field. It was only standard, coach-pitched batting practice from about 45 feet, but it was good to see both swinging a bat again.