Phillies Spring Game 3

The Phillies (1-1-1) were smoked by the host Houston Astros this afternoon by a 6-3 score at Osceola County Stadium in Kissimmee, Florida. This gives the Fightins a tie, a win, and a loss thus far in the early going of the Grapefruit League season.

Houston jumped on top in the bottom of the 3rd when Robbie Grossman‘s line single to left off the Phillies’ Miguel Gonzalez scored Max Stassi for a 1-0 Astros lead. The Phils evened it right up in the top of the 4th when Cody Asche doubled off Houston’s top pitching prospect, Mark Appel. The two-bagger scored Domonic Brown to make it 1-1.

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The Astros then broke the tie with a series of wind-aided longballs. Luis Valbuena started it with one off Gonzalez in the bottom of the 4th to put Houston up 2-1. Then in the bottom of the 5th it was both Grossman and Marwin Gonzalez taking Phillippe Aumont over the rightfield wall, moving the lead out to 4-1.

Houston then put the game away with a pair of runs in the bottom of the 8th on an RBI single by Alex Presley and an RBI double off the bat of former Phils prospect Jon Singleton, stretching the lead out to 6-1.

The Phillies got a run in the top of the 9th when a couple of hits and a fielder’s choice got the bags loaded, and Chris Nelson brought home Chris McGuinness with a sacrifice fly. Dom Brown followed with a smash off the 3rd baseman, scoring another to make it the 6-3 final.

The big story for the Phils was way back at the beginning. Cliff Lee took the mound for the start with a number of MLB scouts interested in his performance. Lee looked sharp, shutting out Houston over two innings in which he allowed a pair of singles. He rolled a doubleplay ball, and had no strikeouts or walks in the appearance.

Tomorrow the Phillies will return to Clearwater to take on the New York Yankees at Bright House Field. That is not a repeat: it will mark the third time the two clubs have met over the first four Grapefuit League games. Cole Hamels will make his spring debut for the Fightins in a game that will be covered at 1:05pm by both MLB Network and locally in Philly by TCN.