As mentioned a few days ago, I got down to Florida last weekend and saw the Phils face the Houston Astros in Kissimmee on Saturday, March 11 and the Cincinnati Reds at Clearwater's state-of-the-art Bright House Networks Field on Sunday, March 12. The Phils won both games; it's probably a safe bet that they've done a lot better against the Astros in Florida over the last three years than in either Houston or Philadelphia. It was a Ryan-a-riffic weekend: rising slugger Ryan Howard hit two home runs on Saturday and continued to hit screamers on Sunday, Ryan Franklin started the first game we saw, and Ryan Madson the second.
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| Ryan Howard before hitting his first of two home runs, March 11 vs. Houston |
Below, notes I made--but for some reason didn't post--last Sunday night while waiting for The Sopranos to come on in my hotel room.
- Ryan Howard is a monster. At least for these two days, he's got that Piazza-in-his-prime thing going, where the ball just seems to explode off his bat and even the outs are impressive. Yesterday he was pretty much it for the Phils' offense.
- Franklin somehow struck out five guys in his 3 2/3 yesterday, against a pretty good Astros lineup. Floyd came in later in the game and didn't look very sharp: he was pretty clearly nibbling, and the one time he clearly challenged a Houston hitter, he got taken out of the yard.
- Rollins looked lost at the plate yesterday, pretty sharp today.
- Burrell was back in action today and had a handful of good at-bats. He was thrown out trying to score on a fly out in the first inning, but that probably would have happened even if his foot was 100 percent...
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Pat Burrell, shortly before getting
thrown out at home vs. the Reds, 3/12
- Madson shrugged off the leadoff homer to Wise and was very sharp for the rest of the game. Seemed to be throwing a lot of curveballs, which is probably the most important thing for him this spring. As with Franklin the day before, he left the game with two outs in the fourth; I'm guessing this was just coincidence as both of them hit their pitch counts.
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Ryan Madson works out of first-
inning trouble vs. the Reds, 3/12
- Michael Bourn [since reassigned to minor-league camp] had a nice at-bat yesterday afternoon, falling behind 0-2 and then hitting a deep sac fly to provide what turned out to be the winning run.
- Lefty relievers Rhodes, Cormier and Fultz all looked pretty sharp today, though the Reds' lineup was quite weak, particularly by then.
- Highlight of the weekend: getting Harry Kalas to sign my cap yesterday!
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