Phillies 7, Orioles 5: Brock Stassi Continues to Make a Difference

BOX SCORE

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- The Baltimore Orioles led the majors with 253 home runs last season.

The Phillies ranked 24th with 161.

On Tuesday, however, the Phillies out-homered the O's en route to a 7-5 victory. The Phils hit four homers, the Orioles one.

Reality check: The Orioles brought a watered-down lineup to Clearwater. No Mark Trumbo (a majors-leading 47 homers last season), no Chris Davis (38), no Manny Machado (37).

Nonetheless, Phillies manager Pete Mackanin was pleased with the power his team showed. Tommy Joseph bombed a homer off the tiki bar beyond the left field wall. Aaron Altherr crushed one out to left. And non-roster players Scott Kingery (more here) and Brock Stassi both homered.

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Of course, Stassi homered.

All he has done in the first week of games is get big hits. He's played in four games and has two homers and a double. His three-run homer run in the bottom of the eighth inning came with the Phillies down two runs and gave them the lead. The home run came on a 2-0 pitch from Cody Sedlock. The 21-year-old righty was the Orioles' first-round pick (No. 27 overall) out of the University of Illinois last year. He looked a little overwhelmed as he allowed five hits, including two homers, and four runs in losing the lead.

Stassi was the Phillies' 33rd-round draft pick in 2011. He is 27 years old and bidding to win a spot on the roster as a backup first baseman/outfielder.

"He's caught my eye," said Mackanin, who seems to say something good about Stassi every day.

After Tuesday's game, Stassi recalled how he lost 30 percent of his signing bonus the same day he received the check in 2011.

"But my signing bonus was just $1,000," he said, laughing.

All these years later, he's putting himself in a position to hit the dream-come-true jackpot that would come with making the Phillies' opening day roster.

"Today was a good day," he said. "Put it behind me and come back tomorrow."

On the mound
Clay Buchholz made his spring debut with two scoreless innings. He gave up two hits and a walk.

With five weeks to go before his first start of the regular season, Buchholz tried to pace himself. There's plenty of time to let it loose.

"You hear the slogan saving bullets and I think that's a big thing," said Buchholz, 32. "If you go out max effort before your body is ready to do that, that's when injuries happen."

Herrera excused
Obudel Herrera missed Tuesday game's because he needed to travel to New Orleans to complete some paperwork for the upcoming World Baseball Classic. He will return Wednesday.

Herrera will play left field for Team Venezuela. Mackanin said he may get Herrera some work at the position before the player departs for the WBC next week.

The Phillies play the Rays in Port Charlotte on Wednesday. Vince Velasquez will make his first start of the spring. Here is the Phillies' posted starting lineup:

Cesar Hernandez, 2B
Chris Coghlan, LF
Andres Blanco, 3B
Tommy Joseph, 1B
Daniel Nava, DH
Andrew Knapp, C
J.P. Crawford, SS
Roman Quinn, CF
Aaron Altherr, RF

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