CLEARWATER, Fla. – The Phillies had eight walks, nine base hits and put runners on base every inning against the Yankees on Friday afternoon.
They just failed to score.
Rhys Hoskins and Tommy Joseph both went 2 for 2, but situational hitting remains a problem in the first half of spring.
"Hoskins swung the bat well, he looks like a heck of a hitter," manager Pete Mackanin said, "and Joseph is starting to get going, good to see that as well.
"Other than that not much to talk about."
The Phillies left 16 runners on base and allowed a three-run homer to Chase Headley in the first inning off starter Clay Buchholz as the Yankees won, 5-0, to drop the Phillies to 6-7-2 in the Grapefruit League.
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"We had bases loaded three times and couldn't capitalize, it was one of those days," Mackanin said. "We might have used up all our runs in Lakeland [against the Tigers] the other day. Little by little we're getting there."
Mackanin isn't ready to panic, nor should he, as many of the regulars are just beginning to get their at-bats and every player has a different approach to what they want to do during the Spring.
"When guys have 20-25 at-bats it's hard to tell," Mackanin said. "Some guys are hot some guys aren't. It takes time for some guys. It's a matter of putting something together. We swung the bats extremely well in Lakeland the other day and we've had other games where we swung the bat well. We're taking walks but we're also striking out too much."
The Phillies struck out eight times.
Garcia shows his splitter
Luis Garcia had his third consecutive scoreless outing of the spring and pitched a perfect 1 2/3 innings of relief.
Mackanin said he was encouraged by Garcia going nearly two innings and the primary pitch that he used -- a split-finger fastball.
"He's started fiddling around with a split fastball and I don't know if [Joaquin] Benoit has been talking to him about that but he threw some really good splitters today and if he can command that pitch pretty well he could be very effective," Mackanin said. "He might have re-invented himself. Last year we forced [Hector] Neris to throw a lot of splits and it seemed to light a fire under him and helped him take off and pitch so well. I'm hoping the same thing for Luis."
Mackanin said Garcia is one of the guys that is on the bubble but he's eager to see what he can do for the rest of the spring and if he can provide multiple innings out of the bullpen.
Garcia has given up no runs and just one hit in his last three spring appearances.
"Our bullpen is pretty established but the one thing we need to make sure we have to have is some length so it was good to see Luis throw two innings," Mackanin said. "Length is going to be important, especially early in the season."
Up next
Right-hander Vince Velasquez will start against Blue Jays right-hander Marco Estrada in Dunedin at 1:07 p.m. on Saturday.
"The big thing with Vince is I want to see him throw strikes and have control of his pitches," Mackanin said. "It's important to get him throwing strikes and being in command of what he's doing on the mound."
