Bautista's bat heating up as Jays beat Phillies 7-6

Jays v Phillies.

Line-ups: Toronto: Davis, Escobar, Lind, Bautista, Hill, Snider, Rivera, Thames DH, and Jose Molina with Drew Hutchison pitching. Hutchison is only 20 and took Drabek’s spot so that Kyle could start against the Orioles on Monday to get him in to the regular rotation and pitch his first regular game on Saturday. Hutchison was with Class A Lansing last season went 1-2 with 1.52 ERA.

Phillies: Victorino, Castillo, Rollins, Howard, Francisco, Young, Barfield, Ruiz and Kendrick pitching and hitting ninth. Phillies post a very strong starting line-up.

Jays go out ahead in the first inning with doubles from Escobar followed by Bautista. Escobar had two more singles to go 3-4 on the afternoon. In the third inning Jays hit three more doubles from Lind, Bautista and Molina to make it 3-0 and Davis had a solo home run in the 5th to give the Jays a 4-0 lead.

The Phillies scratch their way back to tie it in the 8th. In the fifth Ruiz gets his two run homer and Ben Francisco gets an rbi double to make it 5-3. Phillies came back in the bottom of the eighth to get three runs including a bases loaded walk and tie the game before Jays Crabbe gets the go ahead run in the top of the 9th off Chapman. Abreu closes down the Phillies to end this one with another impressive win for Jays. 7-6 and to go out 14-12 for the spring.

Great news: Corey Patterson hit in the helmet last night by Bard (not Beckett) appears to be ok today. He is slated to be the spare outfielder to go north with the team when they leave Dunedin. Corey said he did not believe the hit was deliberate even though it came right after the three run home run by the Jays in previous inning and that Daniel Bard had phoned him later.

The very good: Hutchison and excellent outing against a tough Phillies line-up at Bright House. 4.2 innings gave up a 2 rbi home run to Ruiz in the fifth inning but only two hits and two runs. Bautista a three hit day all doubles along with Escobar. Cordero, Janssen, Rauch, Abreu all keep the Phillies off the board. Rivera another great throw to the plate to get Ruiz coming home.

Good: Hill, Crabbe, Snider, Lind, Molina, Cooper all had hits to give Jays 13 on the day and go 7-16 with runners in scoring position, a much better than average day at the park.

Not so good: Unusual for Casey Janssen getting into trouble. In the 8th today giving up two hits, three runs and a walk after he has had faultless spring to date.

Tomorrow Romero gets his last spring start against the Orioles in Dunedin needing a much better outing than his last two starts where he has struggled.