Cliff Lee’s spring debut was a bit rocky at the start as the Phillies other ace gave up two runs in the first inning including a triple off the bat of Tigers’ LF Ryan Rabun. Lee did settle down though and ended up striking out three of the eight batters he would face over two innings. He said before the game that his primary focus today was to work on his fastball location, so he threw very little off speed stuff in his short appearance.
Josh Barfield had a nice day starting at second base in place of the injured Chase Utley. He was 2-3 with a double, a run scored and also made a fine leaping catch in the top of the 5th to rob Detroit of a base hit.
As for the battle for the starting right field job, the previously hot Ben Francisco cooled off today with and 0-3. Domonic Brown meanwhile continued his awful spring with another 0-fer and two strikeouts.