Attendance: 6,922
Game Time: 2:53
Weather: 75 degrees, sunny
Wind: 7 mph, R to L
Umpires: Home Plate – Sean Barber, First Base – Mark Wegner, Third Base
– Jeremie Rehak
Seventh-inning stretch song: Thank God I’m A Country Boy – John Denver
Section 207, Row Q, Seat 14 – top row today (not a problem in these
small stadiums), almost directly behind home plate, in the shade again
(pleasant, since it wasn’t as chilly as yesterday)
The ballpark now known as “Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium” has
also been greatly improved since my last trip there 3 years ago. As in
Bradenton, you can now walk all the way around the outfield, and the
concessions have been expanded – a welcome touch, since long lines had always
been an unwelcome feature of the park previously. Even the new electronic menu
signs are actually readable. They didn’t offer anything particularly exotic or
regional, but the cheese dogs weren’t bad.
Getting to Lakeland, and in and out of town, wasn’t bad at all,
although getting through Tampa on the way back was extremely slow due to an
incident on I-275. I heartily concur with the recommendation at http://www.springtrainingconnection.com/lakeland.html
to park at Christ Lutheran Church just north of the field. It’s close, cheap
($5.00), paved, and the volunteers are friendly. At some point the lot probably
fills up, but there were still some spots available at 11:30.
The Phillies pitching staff shut out the Tigers until the bottom of the
ninth. Drew Hutchison bolstered his case for making the team by nibbling his
way through the first 4 innings, allowing only one hit. He did walk 3 batters,
but distinguished himself in the third by fanning Miguel Cabrera with one out
and runners on second and third.
Former Nat Jordan Zimmermann tuned up for Opening Day by going five
innings. He was particularly impressive in the first inning, when he fanned 3
Phils (with a Scott Kingery single thrown in). He did wind up giving up 4 runs
on 9 hits, although his stuff generally looked good.
The Phillies have 2 openings on their 4-man bench, and the main
contenders were all in the lineup. Veteran Pedro Florimon, playing 3B, kicked
off the offense with a leadoff triple in the second. Jesse Valentin made a nice
quick-reaction play at 1B (his 7th position of the spring), and
added a single and double. CF Roman Quinn did Roman Quinn things: beating out a
double play and then stealing second (2nd inning); singling in
Valentin, going to second on the throw and then stealing third (4th);
almost beating out a grounder to second (6th); hitting a soft
grounder to third, getting to second on the ensuing throwing error, and then
stealing third (8th). Quinn seems like the key to the decision. Does
the team want to go with Florimon and Valentin for more defensive versatility,
while giving Quinn more playing time (and chances to get hurt) in AAA, or keep
him in the majors, where he can be a late-inning weapon but would probably get
only sporadic at-bats?
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