Seven Shutout
Seven shutout last night for two former BlueClaws…Kyle Drabek and JA Happ. First, Drabek…
He made the jump from Clearwater to Reading…Hi-A to Double-A, the toughest jump in Minor League Baseball, and so far so good. Drabek threw seven shutout in his Reading debut last night and topped out at 99 mph on the radar gun.
“I tried to keep the ball down at the beginning,” he said. “During the game, I started to get it up a little bit, but it was good to have the team out there behind me for the hard-hit balls. The change-up wasn’t really there. I think I got most of my outs on fastballs.”
Phillies minor league pitching coordinator Gorm Heimueller is here in Maryland, and said that he was torn between going to see Drabek or Jason Knapp, but chose Knapp because he saw Drabek last week in Florida. Of course, Knapp’s start was rained out last night and he’ll pitch today. Heimueller, nonetheless, received the report late last night and was quite excited.
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JA Happ, making his second start of the season, improved to 4-0 with seven shutout at San Diego. Think the Phillies would like to have that Chan Ho Park decision back?
“I try to throw a lot of first-pitch strikes and be aggressive,” said Happ. “I had to be aggressive to be successful and I mixed it up early in the game and kept them off balance.
“I felt strong and hopefully I can keep building. I was glad to go out there for the seventh even after the leadoff hit.”
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