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Maikel Franco homers again, but pitching fails the Phillies

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Maikel Franco continued his Grapefruit League barrage with another long home run, but the rest of the Phillies offense was silenced in a 7-2 loss Monday to Tampa Bay at Spectrum Field.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Maikel Franco continued his Grapefruit League barrage with another long home run, but the rest of the Phillies offense was silenced in a 7-2 loss Monday to Tampa Bay at Spectrum Field.

Franco, facing Clearwater native and Rays reliever Ryan Garton, crushed a long solo homer into the bullpens. He is 4 for 5 this spring, with three of the four hits for home runs.

The Phillies managed just one other extra-base hit, a double by Odubel Herrera.

Jerad Eickhoff struggled with his command in his first two innings of the spring; he threw just 13 of his 28 pitches for strikes. The bullpen was worse. Luis Garcia surrendered two more runs. Drew Anderson, a touted young starter, struck out four in two innings, but Corey Dickerson bashed a deep two-run homer. Minor-league fill-in Miguel Nunez served up another two-run shot to Shane Peterson.

The Phillies are home again Tuesday, as Clay Buchholz makes his spring Phillies debut against Baltimore at 1:05 p.m.

mgelb@philly.com

@MattGelb