WOULD RATHER BE IN CLEARWATER
The following courtesy of Jim Salisbury, beating the bushes out in Reading:
Brett Myers got out of his most recent rehab outing healthy and dry, but he was not particularly sharp while pitching two innings for the Reading Phillies against the Bowie Baysox tonight.
Myers, recovering from June 4 hip surgery, allowed two hits, including an inside-the-park home run, and struck out two. He threw 30 pitches, 16 strikes and 14 balls
Myers, who will pitch in relief when he is activated by the Phillies later this week, started the game. He was expected to throw 45-50 pitches but left the game when heavy rain halted play in the bottom of the second with Bowie leading, 1-0.
This was Myers’ second rehab outing with Reading. On Wednesday, he pitched two scoreless innings of relief and struck out five. Myers had been scheduled to work in relief again last night, but was assigned the start because of the threat of bad weather.
With the skies darkening, Myers appeared to rush his pitches in the second inning. He fell behind all four batters that he faced in the frame. Bowie’s Eric Crozier led off the second by hitting a long fly ball to right on a 2-0 fastball. The ball hit high off the wall and caromed for an inside-the-park home run.
Despite appearing to work quickly in the second inning, Myers said he attempted to pace himself because he was starting and he was aware that he needed to reach his prescribed pitch count. The pacing, he said, hurt his command. He said he would not pace himself when he works as a reliever. He is expected to pitch twice more, possibly Tuesday and Wednesday for triple A Lehigh Valley, before being activated.
``Tonight was a totally different scenario because I started the game,’’ Myers said. ``It’s different than coming out of the bullpen. I didn’t want to try to overthrow or overpower. I was just trying to get out of here healthy.’
Myers’ fastball ranged from 90-93 mph. One of his two strikeouts came on a sharp, full-count curveball.
``I think I’m pretty close,’’ Myers said.
Bob Brookover and Matt Gelb team up for their third straight season covering the Phillies for the Inquirer and philly.com.
This is Brookover’s second stint writing about the Phillies, having joined the coverage team after seven years as an Eagles beat writer. Brookover was hired by The Inquirer in 2000 as the Phillies beat writer after spending 13 years writing about the team for two suburban newspapers. While on the Eagles beat, Brookover, who had covered just two winning Phillies teams in 15 seasons, saw the Phillies move into a cash-cow new ballpark and begin playing a brand of the game he found unrecognizable. Follow him on Twitter here.
Gelb is in his third season covering the Phillies. He was hired by The Inquirer in August 2009 after graduating from Syracuse University. He has also covered baseball at The Star-Ledger and Cape Cod Times. Born and raised in Bucks County, he attended Central Bucks High School West. Follow him on Twitter here.
To submit a question for Matt Gelb's Phillies mailbag, click here.
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