CLEARWATER, Fla. - Dylan Bundy can joke about his poor spring debuts. With his new manager, Brandon Hyde, and anyone else within earshot.
He didn't add to his legacy today, allowing one run over two innings against the Phillies at Spectrum Field.
Bundy surrendered four hits, but the damage was minimal. The Phillies loaded the bases with no outs in the second and settled for the one run on Austin Listi's sacrifice fly.
"You don't want that to happen during the season, so yeah, get them out of the way when you can," Bundy said.
"I told Hyder I think I was 3-for-3 on homers in my first outing every year and I didn't give one up, so it's a good start."
Jean Segura singled with one out in the first inning, but Adam Haseley flied to left field and Trevor Plouffe struck out on a slider.
Lane Adams, Phil Gosselin and Andrew Romine singled in the second. Shortstop Alcides Escobar made a sliding backhanded stop on Gosselin's grounder, but flipped wide of the bag trying for the force.
Drew Butera struck out looking at a fastball down the middle and Listi reduced the lead to 2-1 with his fly ball.
Bundy threw 37 pitches, 24 for strikes. His fastball was mostly in the 90-92 mph range.
"Every time you have the bases juiced like that you just try to limit the damage and get out of there as quick as you can," he said. "But overall, just felt good in general. I was happy with it."
Count Bundy among the starters who have bonded with new pitching coach Doug Brocail.
"Communication. Just keeps it honest with you. Just lets you know what you need to know. I don't know how else to put it," Bundy said.
Bundy was 8-16 with a 5.45 ERA and 1.410 WHIP in 31 starts last season and his 41 home runs led the majors. The second half was a mess after Bundy sprained his ankle running the bases in Atlanta, 13 starts producing a 7.11 ERA and 1.566 WHIP in 68 1/3 innings.
Improvement will come to Bundy if he's better able to spot his fastball.
"I think every pitcher in the league will tell you that," he said. "That's the key thing. You've got to locate the fastball every time and you can't really make mistakes with your off-speed pitches when you're ahead in the count.
"Even today, I had a little bit of trouble with that, getting ahead two strikes and then prolonging the at-bat, so just things to work at."
Joey Rickard is continuing his impressive spring with a triple, single, RBI and run scored to leave him 4-for-8 in four games. Yusniel Diaz has a single, two doubles and an RBI in four at-bats and is 7-for-14 this spring.
Diaz scored on Rickard's single in the fifth to increase the lead to 5-2.
David Hess allowed one run over two innings. Jimmy Yacabonis tossed two more scoreless innings, walking one batter and striking out two.
Update: In his first spring appearance, Pedro Araujo was charged with one run and two hits in one-third of an inning and the Orioles lead the Phillies 5-3 in the eighth. Araujo walked a batter and struck out one. The defense was shaky again behind him.
Final update: The Phillies were down to their final out when Cody Carroll surrendered a two-run homer by first baseman Darick Hall to tie the score. The Phillies and Orioles left it at that. Final score 5-5.
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