The Phillies High-A squad faced the Blue Jays High-A team in BayCare Ballpark.  Another of my favorite pitchers started today, Kevin Gowdy.  This is likely the squad that will play out of Jersey Shore (almost wrote City, again).  MLB’s fiddling with affiliates and levels means I’ll miss Gowdy in Clearwater as well as Corbin Williams, Luis Garcia, Jake Holmes, Ben Pelletier, and Abrahan Gutierrez.

---

Game five.  The Phils fielded some solid pitching.  A solo home run by Ben Pelletier provided the only scoring.  A win for the good guys, 1-0.  Here’s my boxscore.

		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Williams	CF	BB		K		5-3			6-3		0-3, BB, K
L. Garcia	SS	K		F8			5-3		1B		1-4, K
Ortiz	LF	L5			1B		1B		6-3		2-4
Iser	C	K			1B		K			K	1-4, 3 K
Rott	1B		BB		FC		4-3			1B	1-3, BB
Holmes	3B		K		FC			F9		K	0-4, 2 K
Friscia	DH/1B		K			F9		1B		F7	1-4, K
Pelletier	RF		BB			HR		F8			1-2, R, RBI, BB
Fassnacht	2B		FC			BB					0-1, BB
Cornelius	2B							L6			0-1
Gutierrez	DH			F8		K			E6F		0-3, K
		0/0	0/0	0/0	0/2	1/1	0/1	0/1	0/1	0/1	7-33, 4 BB, 9 K, 5 SB

Corbin Williams stole second and third.  Their best chance to score an early run came on Jhailyn Ortiz’ line drive to the third baseman.  Williams was back on the bag before the fielder could even think about a throw over.

The Phillies got leadoff and two-out walks in the second, but couldn’t score.  Rudy Rott stole second to no avail.

Back-to-back singles in the fourth were wasted when Ortiz was out trying to go from first to third.

Ben Pelletier smashed a solo HR in the fifth to break a scoreless tie.  Fassnacht walked and stole second after Pelletier’s dinger.

Singles in the sixth and seventh only resulted in stranded runners.

A fielding error and a single put two runners on in the eighth with one out, goose egg.

We batted in the ninth to allow another Jays’ pitcher to get his work.  Rott singled and successfully stole his second base of the game.

---

Kevin Gowdy pitched three strong, one-hit innings followed by Julian Garcia who did the same.  Tyler Adams threw some heat.  Nick Lackney and Ethan Evanko retired the final 5 batters.  Here’s my pitcher’s box score.

	IP	BF	Outs	H	R	ER	BB	K	P	S
Gowdy	3.0	11	9	1	0	0	1	3	48	30
J. Garcia	3.0	10	9	1	0	0	1	2	40	27
T. Adams	1.1	7	4	1	0	0	2	3	35	16
Lackney	0.2	2	2	0	0	0	0	1	9	5
Evanko	1.0	3	3	0	0	0	1	1	14	7
	9.0	33	27	3	0	0	5	10	146	85

Kevin Gowdy issued a two-out walk in a 19-pitch first inning but escaped with a weak ground ball to second.

He was dialed-in in the second throwing 12 strikes in 16 pitches.  He was touched for a two-out, broken-bat, Texas leaguer to right but got an easy comebacker for the third out.

Gowdy punctuated a 1-2-3 third inning with a strike out.

Julian Garcia pitched effectively around a leadoff double in the fourth.

He followed with an efficient 9-pitch, 8-strike fifth inning.

Garcia opened the sixth with a 4-pitch walk.  That runner was erased on an untimely hit-and-run when the batter stroked a semi-liner to Vito Friscia at first for a double play.

In the seventh, Tyler Adams dug himself a hole with a walk, hit-and-run single, stolen base.  With runners on second and third, he induced a one-hopper to a drawn-in second baseman before retiring the next two batters on strikeouts.

Adams started the eighth with a strikeout but was relieved after a one-out walk.

Nick Lackney ended the threat with a strikeout and a ground out to third.

We got a little excitement in the ninth after a leadoff walk  Evanko got the first out with a strike out and the second out on a fly ball to center.  The runner on first took off for second on a 1-1 pitch (swung on and missed) but was a dead out when Abrahan Gutierrez gunned a throw that ended the game.

---

Other Stuff

Corbin Williams stole second on the first pitch after he reached base.  Doesn’t bother to watch the pitcher for an advantage.  He’s that fast.

Williams was on third with one out when Ortiz lifted a pop up in foul territory.  The first baseman and catcher went to catch the ball.  The pitcher drifted over, too, on a line that took him close to first base.  Williams gets a huge secondary lead.  He recognized that nobody was guarding home.  He went back to the bag and assumed a sprinter’s stance in case the ball was caught.  Unfortunately, the ball landed on the other side of the netting.  I would have liked to have seen that ball caught and the rush of fielders trying to beat Williams to the plate.  How many times do you get to score an SF2 or SF3?

Rudy Rott is a big guy unless he’s standing next to Vito Friscia.  He burned BlueJays’ catchers for not one but two stolen bases.

Ben Pelletier’s home run hit Frenchy’s roof.  That’s a heckuva blast.

Williams looked like he pulled his bat back on a bunt attempt in the eighth.  That left Gutierrez in no man’s land for a rundown out, 1-3-6.

I think the Phillies hit-and-run later in the eighth with Ortiz batting.  Honest.  Not making this up.  Adamson is from Australia. Probably doesn’t know the Phillies don’t do that.  Better get him a copy of Money Ball or the next thing we’ll see will be sacrifice bunting.  Gott put an end to this stealing stuff, too.  😉

Sucks not having a radar reading on the pitchers.  Gowdy sounded fast.  As did Garcia.  Adams surely popped the mitt.

---

Blue Jays again tomorrow.  I’ll be at my regular post unless I hear that Mick Abel is throwing on the backfield.