This afternoon, Cole Hamels rebounded from a rough outing in his last start, but unfortunately Ken Giles got hit hard as the Phillies eventually ended up falling to Toronto, 4-1.
After a struggling for most of the spring, Cole Hamels looked more ready to start Opening Day. In five innings of work, he only allowed two hits, walked three and struck out four. So far this spring, Hamels has a 5.17 ERA and opposing batters are now hitting .232 against him. Hamels looks poised to start Opening Day and will most likely get one more start this spring. Luis Garcia got an inning of work today, surrendering just a walk in a scoreless frame. Rule-5 pick Andy Oliver tossed two-thirds of an inning and walked four. Oliver struggled with command the whole inning and was lucky to get a double-play. Ken Giles replaced Oliver with the bases loaded and two outs in the seventh and put out the fire with one pitch, getting a ground ball. Giles, though, got into trouble in his second inning of work surrendering four runs. Justin De Fratus replaced Giles with one out in the eighth. He got the Phillies out of the inning with a strikeout and grounder.
Offensively, the Phillies were relatively quiet except with the lone run scored in the fourth. The Phils had five hits in the game from Chase Utley, Carlos Ruiz, Grady Sizemore and Cesar Hernandez. Ruiz drove in Utley in the fourth on a double for the only run for the Phillies.
The Blue Jays got on the board in the eighth with a Ryan Goins RBI-double, scoring Munenori Kawasaki off of Ken Giles. After walking his second batter of the inning, Giles also allowed a three-run blast to Steve Tolleson.
Blue Jays starter Aaron Sanchez lasted 5 1/3 innings and gave up the one run on two hits walking one while striking out two. Jays came up with four hits came from Kevin Pillar, Ryan Goins, Steve Tolleson and Dalton Pompey. The Jays, despite just four hits, were on base a lot with 10 total walks. With so many walks, the Phillies were lucky the Jays didn’t take advantage of them earlier in the game.
Up Next: Tomorrow at 1:05pm, the Phillies will return to Bright House Field to face the Yankees. Last year’s first round draft pick Aaron Nola gets the nod against Michael Pineda.
Andrew Shipototsky is a staff writer for Philliedelphia
