Phillies Farm System Report: Reading Fightin’ Phils Hot to End April
Here is a quick recap of the week in the minor league affiliates of the Philadelphia Phillies as they climb the ladder to the big leagues.
Lehigh Valley IronPigs
Week Record (4-2)
Year Record to Date (12-10)
Recap and Standouts
Looks like Lehigh Valley may be starting to get their groove back offensively. Many of the Iron Pigs had a nice week offensively. Jorge Alfaro posted two more three-hit games and two more homers, which put him at three for the season. Meanwhile, Rhys Hoskins continues to make a push for Tommy Joseph’s job. He hit his fifth and sixth homers of the season.
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While Dylan Cozens hit an important home run in the first half of doubleheader on Saturday, the powerful lefty was 0-5 in part two…with five strikeouts. J.P. Crawford is slowly, but surely showing signs of life in Lehigh Valley. In that same doubleheader, the shortstop went 3-8, which boosted his season mark to .138 and it seems as though he is putting together better at-bats each game.
Jake Thompson has also begun to pull himself back together.The right-hander went seven strong last Sunday and allowed no runs while striking out seven. Of his 93 pitches, 63 were thrown for strikes, which is a positive sign moving forward.
Mark Appel battled his way to his first win of 2017 on Thursday. Then, Ben Lively made his first start since his brief stint up in Philadelphia. He put together seven very strong innings of work. He struck out only one hitter, but only allowed one run.
Reading Fightins’
Week Record (5-0)
Year Record to Date (11-7)
Recap and Standouts
A perfect week in Reading can be headlined by the top three in the Fightins’ order. Reading scored more than five runs in every game, except one, this week. In that one? They scored four. Scott Kingery, Andrew Pullin, and Carlos Tocci all had very good weeks.
Kingery put together multiple games with two or more hits. Pullin continued his red-hot start ending the week hitting a robust .360, which leads the team by a nice gap. Tocci continues to be Mr. Consistency, adding two three-hit games, and continuing to play nearly flawless centerfield.
And in addition to his six innings of two earned runs, Thomas Eshelman hit a three run homerun to account for 75% of his teams runs in Harrisburg. The righty’s start was much needed as he has had some early season struggles.
Brandon Liebrandt and Cole Irvin put together the best starts for Reading this week. Both lefties worked six innings of one-run ball. Liebrandt struck out seven and Irvin put down three on strikes. Both starters pulled their ERAs down below 2.00 through the month. Liebrandt sits at 1.69 and Irvin finds himself at 1.04, while Reading finds themselves unable to lose.