Postgame, Phillies 2-0: The only hit the Red Sox muster is a leadoff double by Mike Cameron in the third as they fall to 2-3 in Grapefruit League play.
It's on to Tampa on Friday night for the first of two meetings this spring with the New York Yankees. Hate to break the news to anyone who might be traveling and hoping to see some stars, it will be a traveling team loaded with minor leaguers.
Clay Buchholz and Jason Varitek, the starting battery, will be the featured players. After that you can look forward to Jose Iglesias, Ryan Kalish, Darnell McDonald, Josh Reddick, Daniel Nava and a few other known names.
One small note to pass on from earlier Thursday. Reliever Dennys Reyes got through a session with live hitters and is on target to toss an inning Saturday in Sarasota.
Look for the live blog to come to you Friday night from the NESN booth, where Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy will share some insight with us as we go along.
Final, Phillies 2-0: After the Phillies had retired 11 in a row, Oscar Tejada (he batted second, not leadoff as I had mentioned), reached on an error.
That brought up Ryan Kalish, who walked. Yamaico Navarro then grounded to shortstop once more, and once more we had an error. Bases loaded, one out, and the grand slam king Daniel Nava came to the plate.
On the 10th pitch of the at-bat, Nava fouled out. That left it in the hands of Josh Reddick, who flailed at a third strike.
Game over. Back in a bit.
Mid 9th, Phillies 2-0: The highlight of the top of the ninth (for me, at least) came when Erik Kratz, a 29th-round pick in 2002 by Toronto, came to the plate and a fan behind the Phillies dugout went batty.
He was pointing to a tattoo on his arm, which apparently had Kratz's numbers or name or something on it.
Kratz, who hit .118 in nine games for Pittsburgh last year, struck out on three pitches. His one-man fan club disappeared.
The Red Sox are down to their last three outs. Oscar Tejeda will lead it off.
End 8th, Phillies 2-0: Two more strikeouts for Philadelphia pitching (eight overall) and the Red Sox scoring drought continues.
Ten Boston hitters have been set down in order and the club has gone 16 innings without a run. Just six hits in that span. You guys nervous?
Blake Maxwell, a former 40th-round pick who reached Pawtucket last year, is on to pitch the ninth.
Mid 8th, Phillies 2-0: Michael Bowden seems to be very much in limbo in the depth chart. He'll probably be in the bullpen at Pawtucket and certainly a candidate to get another promotion if there are some injuries here and there.
But Bowden struggled a tiny bit after getting converted to a reliever during the 2010 season. It wasn't severe, but it didn't serve to move him up the ladder all that much.
Bowden walked a pair in the eighth before surviving on another tricky wind-blown pop to right.
End 7th, Phillies 2-0: Another 1-2-3 frame for the Phillies as Michael Stutes gets three quick outs, two on foul pops and one on a David Ortiz dribbler.
Michael Bowden is on to pitch the eighth. He has thrown one scoreless inning so far and received credit for one of the two wins for the Sox.
Mid 7th, Phillies 2-0: Rich Hill throws his second scoreless inning of the spring and we get up and stretch with the Red Sox still stuck on one hit, Mike Cameron's double in the third.
And Dell, don't get so worked up. It's a baseball game. I'll explain to you how it works someday if you want.
Also, if we are debating how to define the pitch that Jenks threw based on where it hit Dlugach, why wouldn't it be appropriate to say that he was hit in the backside. Man. Spring training for the readers, too.
End 6th, Phillies 2-0: While we were away, Jason Rice worked around a walk to get through the top of the sixth.
In the bottom half, the Sox went in order. Carl Crawford is 0-for-3 and hitless in nine at-bats so far. Boston has one hit.
Rich Hill is the fifth pitcher of the day for the Red Sox.
More on Bobby Jenks in a moment. He was pleased with his first outing as a member of the team.
2:34 p.m.: Off to hear from Bobby Jenks. Back soon.
End 5th, Phillies 2-0: Facing Scott Mathieson, the first guy on in relief of Cole Hamels, the Red Sox get nothing more than a two-out walk to Jarrod Saltalamacchia.
The scoreless streak that has New Englanders screaming for a trade is now at 13.
Jason Rice will be the fourth Red Sox pitcher of the game. He is also one of the participants — along with Ryan Lavarnway and Luis Exposito — who will try to unseat defending champion Ryan Kalish in the annual Dancing with the New Stars event on Saturday. The yearly event in which young players in camp are judged on their dancing by veterans, benefits The Red Sox Foundation.
Several other changes for the Red Sox, among them Darnell McDonald in center and Josh Reddick in right.
"Beaned" is a more wide-ranging term and is often used to define players being hit intentionally, whether in the head or not. Its original intent had the head in mind, but that was 1934 and we've progressed since then.
Mid 5th, Phillies 2-0: The fourth pitch of the Red Sox career for Bobby Jenks is turned into a double by Shane Victorino, although right fielder J.D. Drew got turned around on the ball.
Anyway, Jenks battled back to get a liner to Carl Crawford for the first out and then teamed with Lars Anderson on a nice 3-1 putout.
Drew caught a lazy fly for the final out.
We will be racing down to speak with Jenks in a moment.
End 4th, Phillies 2-0: The Red Sox have not scored in 12 straight innings, recording just five hits in that span. Probably should make a move for a bat.
Bobby Jenks' unmistakable form is jogging in to pitch the fifth.
Mid 4th, Phillies 2-0: Andrew Miller gives up a two-out single but nothing else. He has now struck out three in two solid innings this spring.
Cole Hamels is going to throw a fourth inning. Most starters only get to three in their second spring training outing but he has been so efficient it makes sense to give him another up-and-down.
End 3rd, Phillies 2-0: One of the promising developments early has been the play of Mike Cameron. He is now 4-for-7 with a double off Cole Hamels in the third.
It was the first and only hit off Hamels in his three innings of work. Cameron moved to third on a grounder and Lars Anderson walked with one out to give Boston a little threat.
Marco Scutaro and Dustin Pedroia were retired to end the threat.
Andrew Miller is on for his second appearance of the spring. His first was electric.
Mid 3rd, Phillies 2-0: Dan Wheeler gives up a pair of two-out singles before getting John Mayberry Jr. to fly to right.
Cole Hamels is out for his third inning of work.
End 2nd, Phillies 2-0: Cole Hamels is in midseason form. He strikes out Kevin Youkilis and J.D. Drew and gets David Ortiz on a weak tapper to the mound.
Six up and six down so far for the Red Sox.
Dan Wheeler has taken over on the mound for Boston. We thought Bobby Jenks would go in this inning. Perhaps in the fourth.
Mid 2nd, Phillies 2-0: As anticipated, the wind is causing all kinds of problems in this one.
A pop to shallow right-center by John Mayberry Jr. fell in front of Mike Cameron and J.D. Drew, both of whom had set up further back and watched the ball die.
That put runners on first and second with one out (the out came when Dustin Pedroia battled the wind to catch a pop) and Jeff Larish ripped a legit double between Drew and Cameron to score them both.
End 1st, 0-0: Both Dustin Pedroia and Carl Crawford remain in search of that first spring hit. They are a combined 0-for-12 after making the second and third outs of the first.
Interestingly enough, Pedroia and Crawford are 7-for-13 with a pair of walks against Cole Hamels in their careers (regular season, of course).
As a reminder, we expect to see Bobby Jenks make his spring training debut in the third inning, or thereabouts.
Mid 1st, 0-0: With help from Lars Anderson at first, Stolmy Pimentel is through the first inning unharmed.
Anderson made an unassisted putout on leadoff man Shane Victorino and later caught a line drive off the bat of Ross Gload to begin an unassisted double play.
Since Donald asked in the comments section, today is a "regen" day for Adrian Gonzalez. That means he is resting. He swung 75 times Wednesday and is expected to get into the cage Friday for his next step forward.
There is no set date for Gonzalez to get into a game but he has been ahead of schedule all along. The end of next week would be an early target, but most likely it will be a bit closer to March 14 or March 15.
On a side note, today is the 28th birthday for Brent Dlugach. Quite a final week of his 27th year. He gets beaned by Bobby Jenks, has a two-error game and then dislocates his left shoulder while making a sensational grab.
1:00 p.m.: Just about set to get underway here. As was the case Wednesday, there is a pretty good breeze blowing in from right (it's Florida, the wind never stops).
It served to cut down a few potential home runs to right in the Atlanta game, and also blew a few shots down the line in left foul.
12:06 p.m.: Dennys Reyes is throwing to live hitters Thursday on the back field at City of Palms and is expected to make his spring training debut Saturday in Sarasota against Baltimore.
Speaking of Sarasota, I will be there live-blogging that game for you. The game at home against Florida will be televised on NESN, so we will have both games covered in some capacity.
I suggest a bag of JAX (nothing like cheese-flavored air), a laptop open to the Sox-Orioles live blog and the TV tuned to NESN. Not many better ways to spend the afternoon, right?
To remind you, here is the TV schedule for the spring.
11:50 a.m.: A row of jerseys/T-shirts are in front of me right now. The last names, in order:
Lee, Beckett, Dykstra, Rollins, McGraw. Good variety there, and a sure sign that this place is packed with Phillies fans. There are actually loads of Lee jerseys, which should not surprise anyone given the power of the surname. The clan in strong, my friends, the clan is strong.
11:31 a.m.: Josh Beckett is scheduled to throw a three-inning simulated game Friday afternoon, Terry Francona told reporters Thursday morning.
The righty will then make a start Tuesday, in all likelihood. He should then be right on schedule and able to move past the bonk in the head from the other day.
The Phillies came to town with a few regulars, but not many. Here is their lineup in support of Cole Hamels:
Shane Victorino, CF
Delwyn Young, 2B
Ross Gload, 1B
Ben Francisco, LF
John Mayberry, Jr., DH
Domonic Brown, RF
Jeff Larish, 3B
Dane Sardinha, C
Michael Martinez, SS
9:14 a.m.: Although Josh Beckett was scratched from this start, the Red Sox do sprinkle in a few more regulars in the starting lineup, which looks like this:
Marco Scutaro, SS
Dustin Pedroia 2B
Carl Crawford, LF
Kevin Youkilis, 3B
David Ortiz, DH
J.D. Drew, RF
Mike Cameron, CF
Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
Lars Anderson, 1B
8:00 a.m.: Months before they meet in interleague play once again, the Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies tangle in a spring training affair Thursday at City of Palms Park.
Boston was scheduled to start Josh Beckett in this one, but he was scratched do to his concussion suffered earlier in the week. Stolmy Pimentel will be the starter in Beckett's place. However, the Red Sox will put forth some intriguing arms out of the bullpen, including the debut of Bobby Jenks.
Jenks is expected to follow Pimentel. After Jenks comes Dan Wheeler, Andrew Miller, Jason Rice and Michael Bowden. Miller was very impressive in his first outing of the spring Monday.
The Phillies will throw Cole Hamels. The lefty made his spring training debut against the Yankees last week. He gave up a run in two innings of work.
First pitch for this one is 1:05 p.m.
