News: Phillies acquire switch-pitcher Pat Venditte
PHILLIES WIN TWICE: Double the pleasure, double the fun this weekend as the Phillies beat both Toronto and Boston in spring training action.
Saturday, in the 8-2 win over Toronto, Vince Velasquez pitched three and change (and said some stuff about umpires). Meanwhile the young guys were hitting – J.P. Crawford smacked two hits including a two-RBI single, Nick Williams added three hits, and Cam Perkins also scored two hits (plus two walks).
On Sunday the Phils came back to beat Boston 6-5. Daniel Nava beat his old team with four hits, while Roman Quinn had two hits, including a home run, and stole a bag.
The story, though, was Aaron Nola’s 3.1 innings, in which he gave up a Pablo Sandoval home run among five hits and three runs. He did strike out six, however. I’m not terribly worried about Nola (give the guy two months of regular season action before we make any judgments), and the Ks were good to see.
TODAY’S GAME: The Phillies head to Sarasota to face the Orioles. Jeremy Hellickson is on the bump. The lineup: Coghlan/Crawford/Kendrick/Saunders/Franco/Stassi/Rupp/Altherr/Valentin.
A TRADE!: And a cool one!
The Phillies traded minor leaguer Joey Curletta (acquired in the Carlos Ruiz trade) to the Mariners for pitcher Pat Venditte.
And why is it cool?
Venditte can throw BOTH lefty and righty. Yup, he’s the ambidextrous (not “amphibious”) pitcher.
Venditte put up a 5.73 ERA in 15 games last year for Seattle and Toronto. Just so you know he was better as a lefty against lefties (.250 BAA), but in a small sample size. He’ll probably be asked to compete for that final bullpen spot.
