Apter Hours: Phillies 7, Braves 4...Victorino debuts, Halladay dominates

Well, the Phillies fans keep having reasons to smile as of late and today was no different. Roy Halladay continued to impress as he and some hot Phillies bats propelled them to a win over the Braves, 7-4.

Pitching...Roy Halladay threw some nasty changeups and curves to keep hitters off balance. If you look at some of the highlights, you can see how bad some of the timing was with some hitters. Man...when this guy is on his game, he looks absolutely untouchable. Although he gave up three hits, Doc struck out five in three scoreless innings. Ryan Madson followed Roy by giving up the 2-0 lead the Phils had. He gave up four runs on three hits in an inning...only two of those runs were earned. Nothing to be extremely worried about...just a little rust to shake off before his next appearance. Danys Baez got into his second game this spring and threw a scoreless inning to pick up the win. He walked one and gave up one hit. Sergio Escalona followed with a scoreless 6th frame and then Andrew Carpenter finished the final three innings with two strikeouts and a hit allowed.

Hitting...Well it seems like the Phillies bats are slowly, but surely, coming out of winter hibernation. Jayson Werth got the Phillies an early 2-0 lead in the 2nd inning with a two-run homer, his first of the spring. He finished the day with two hits in three at bats and tallied two runs and two RBI's. Ryan Howard was 2-for-4 with two runs scored, J-Roll was 1-for-3 and Shane Victorino went 1-for-3 in his spring debut. Some of the big contributors today included Ben Francisco, who hit a two-run double in the 6th and John Mayberry went 1-for-2 with two RBI's. Backup catcher, Brian Schneider also scored a run and got an RBI in a 1-for-3 day at the dish. Top prospect Dom Brown has slowed down lately and he went 0-for-2 today when he went into the game for Werth.

Fielding...Greg Dobbs (3B) had one fielding error.

Box

My thoughts after this game are mostly good ones. Roy Halladay had an awesome showing but Ryan Madson faltered a bit. The big Phillies bats started to break out which is a very refreshing thing to see early in spring training. The Phillies are now 2-3-1 in spring ball.

Up Next...On Wednesday, the Phillies play two games against the Jays...a 10am 'B' game and then a Grapefruit League game at 1:05. Jamie Moyer will start the 'B' game for the Phils while Cole Hamels will get the nod at 1:05. The Phillies will get to face their former top prospect, Kyle Drabek, during tomorrow's Grapefruit League game.

Notes...In a recent interview, Rich Dubee mentioned that Jamie Moyer is the favorite for the number five spot in the rotation and that Kyle Kendrick will have to take it from him. So far, it looks like KK is doing just that.