TUESDAY MARCH 28, 2017
I started the day by driving over to the beach and walking two miles on the beach. It was great walking on the beach on a nice sunny day. It was about 75 when I hit the beach and the weather channel predicted that it would get up to the mid 80’s which bode well for tonight’s game. When I had finished, I put on my sandals and walked up to the Clear Sky restaurant for an early lunch. I settled for surf and turf skewers, served with beef gravey covered rice. I talked with the manager for a while about baseball. He’s a Yankee fan, but I don’t hold that against him. He’s a nice guy and not from New York City, but upstate New York. Then I went home and fed the dog and headed for the ball park. It ain’t easy being me. I don’t know how I put up with it.
The wind was blowing from left to right when I entered the park. I looked at the scoreboard and the temperature was 85 when I entered the park at 4:30. A little warm but I had brought a light jacket any way. I was glad to see both Stassi and Nava in the lineup. It seems to me that they are both in running for the remaining 1b, outfielders post. Stassi went 1 for 3 with a ribbi and Nava went 2-3. The Phils collected 10 hits, but only two of them were for extra bases and both of them were by Kendrick. Howie also drove three of the Phils four runs. As for who to keep, at this point, I think it would Stassi, it he can play the outfield well enough to fill in, but I really like Nava. If they can find a way to keep both of them, that is the way I would go.
Aaron Nola is not ready for the season to start. He looks like a poor imitation of Clay Buchholtz. Their pitching styles are very similar. Like Buchholtz, he has to pitch too fine. His out pitch should be his breaking ball, it looks like a curve, and he can rack up a lot of strike outs, but they get a lot of hits off of his other pitches and then sometimes he hangs a curve and it leaves the park, or hits high off the fence. He wound up lasting on 1.2 innings giving up 7 hits and two walks. 5 runs scored in his brief appearance. In my opinion, if he has any options left, Nola needs to start the season with the Iron Pigs. I was surprised to see Murray work 2.2 innings. I always thought that one, or two was tops for him. I think it is important to note that Jeanmar Gomez finished the game and his ERA for this spring it 0.93. He is indeed the Phillies closer.
Tonight I was surrounded by Blue Jays fans. Actually, I think there were maybe more Blue Jays fans in the stands than Phillie Fans. They were very friendly and easy to talk to, but I was surrounded by the enemy.
Odds & Ends: There is a guy in the stadium how chases baseballs during spring training batting practice, He gets 9-10 a night and claims that he can get $10 a ball. The free market in operation• The Phillies flag is at half staff in memoriam of Dallas Green•