Phillies pitchers baffle the Yankees in a 4-0 Grapefruit League win
New York did not get a hit until the eighth inning. Aaron Nola started with two scoreless frames and prospect Mick Abel impressed as well.
CLEARWATER, Fla. — You’d be hard-pressed to find a better example of why it’s best to take spring training games with a grain of salt than the Phillies’ Grapefruit League home opener on Sunday. Twenty-four hours earlier, their pitching staff allowed 13 runs against the Blue Jays. On Sunday, they carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning en route to a 4-0 win over the Yankees.
The Phillies’ pitchers collectively allowed one hit and just two walks with 13 strikeouts against New York’s road split-squad team. Two who stuck out were starter Aaron Nola — who set the tone with two innings of scoreless ball — and prospect Mick Abel, who threw 11 strikes out of 16 pitches in his inning of work.
Who stood out: Abel sat in the 94-96 mph range. His hardest pitch of the day was a four-seam fastball that registered at 96.4 mph. He threw a few gyro sliders, a pitch he began to throw last year. Command is the thing keeping him from the big leagues right now, so that will be something to keep an eye on this spring.
Backup outfielder Cristian Pache had a good game, going 2-for-2 with a home run. Nick Castellanos went 1-for-3, but more notably, he did not swing at a pitch out of the strike zone (if we’re going off MLB.com’s zone).
On the mound: Nola made his first start of the spring. He looked sharp. Nola didn’t allow a hit or a walk. He pitched two innings with three strikeouts, throwing 33 pitches (20 of them strikes). His hardest pitch of the day clocked in at 92.9 mph.
Quotable: “It was a great day on the mound, for sure,” said manager Rob Thomson. “Nola started it off, his command was outstanding, threw some good changeups. I saw one really good curveball. He was just commanding the ball, and everyone else did too: The power guys, they powered it through the zone, we threw a lot of strikes, we got a lot of weak contact, and we got a lot of strikeouts. Two walks.”
On deck: The Phillies play the Red Sox at JetBlue Park at Fenway South in Fort Myers on Monday at 1:05 p.m. The game will be televised on MLB.com.