Jamie Moyer was very good in his first start of the Grapefruit league (his prior starts were in B games) and he pitched very well as he makes a case for fifth starter. Moyer went five innings, allowing a run on five hits, striking out six in the Phillies 5-4 loss to Baltimore. The game was delayed almost two hours.
Moyer has only two more starts left to make his case against Kyle Kendrick, who also has two more starts before the final rosters are made.
“The manager could be looking at one thing. The pitching coach could be looking at something else,” Moyer said. “Other people that are involved in the decisions could be looking at other things. I have no idea. I’ve never been on that side of it, but it would be very interesting to see what people think or what they’re looking at.”
Placido Polanco made his return yesterday and had a pair of hits. Jimmy Rollins and Ozzie Perez also had a pair and Paul Hoover and Greg Dobbs each had homers. Mike Zagurski was unimpressive in his appearance, allowing three runs in only 2/3 of the eighth inning.
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Roy Halladay wasn’t rattled by his first bad start of Spring Training where he gave up three runs in the 3-0 loss to Detroit. Infact he felt “inconsistent” but remained positive about the bad start as it’s only Spring Training and there is more room for error.
“I was just kind of inconsistent,” Halladay said. “It really felt like I was searching for an arm slot, and I just didn’t repeat extremely well. I just left some balls over the plate, ran some balls back over the plate. The curveball wasn’t very good. The change-up was real good. I was very happy with that. It was the best it’s been all spring. The curveball was kind of nonexistent today.”
“Even though it’s Spring Training, just being able to battle, to try to find ways, it’s the kind of stuff you have to do during the year,” Halladay said. “For me, I think it’s always a personal challenge when you go out and you kind of feel like you’re all over the place, and you’re able to find a way to minimize things and keep yourself in it, it’s always a challenge. Even though it’s Spring Training, I don’t think you ever throw in the towel like, ‘It’s one of those days.'”
TTB 