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spring training game phillies-red sox

phillies spring training

Today was a beautiful day for spring training baseball at Bright House Networks Field. The weather was beautiful, in the low 80s and the stadium was packed. This was announced as the largest crowd ever at the Phillies spring training site to see the Philadelphia Phillies and the Boston Red Sox. The announced crowd was 10,912 and the place only holds 8400. The scalpers could not find tickets to scalp. The few standing room only tickets to be found were going for $40.00-$50.00 and they normally go for $10.00. So the Phillies sold some 2500 standing room only tickets at a spring training baseball game. Not bad.

The game was everything you could hope for. Roy Halladay pitched for the Phillies and John Lester started for the Red Sox. Lester had a no hitter going into the 5th inning when who else but Halladay got the Phillies first hit. Philadelphia went on to win  4-1 and Halladay improved his record to 3-0 for the spring.

Lester looked unhittable until the 5th. His record for the spring dropped to 1-1. He finished up giving up 5 hits and 3 earned runs. Philadelphia got 1 run across in the 5th to tie the score 1-1, and then pushed across 3 more in the 6th to win 4-1. Both teams finished with 6 hits but no one really hit the ball hard against the great pitching. No player had more than one hit in the game.

It was well played game by two great teams that should be in post season play trying to get to the World Series. The two pitchers Roy Halladay  and John Lester looked to be in mid season form.

Of course I was looking at this game closely because I feel the Phillies pose the biggest threat to Atlanta getting to the World Series. The Philadelphia Phillies signed three-time All-Star second baseman Luis Castillo to a minor league contract on Monday. The Phillies are worried about Chase Utleys’ right knee and think Castillo could provide some help if the knee injury needs surgery.

Tuesday I will be in Lakeland at Tigertown to see what should be another great spring training game in Florida between the Detroit Tigers and the New York Mets. This is one of my favorite spring training sites and the people there love their Tigers. There are several Tigers fans staying at the same hotel we are staying in. They like a lot of people you meet here come down from the cold up north to see their favorite team play for a week in sunny Florida.

An extra note pitcher Nelson Figueroa who pitched for the Astos’ Sunday against the Braves was selected as their 5th starter. He looked really good during the start. The reason for my interest is because his family was sitting behind us and we had a good chat with his parents. It was also interesting listening to his wife talk about some of the problems a wife faces while her husband is on the road. Nothing like a military wife home alone for a year would face but problems just the same.

Mike