All Cody Asche did on Opening Day was get on base in four of five at bats, cross the plate four times and drive in two runs in the Philadelphia Phillies’ 14-10 win over the Texas Rangers. Apparently, all he’ll be doing in the Game 2 of the series is watching from the dugout, at least from the outset.
Ryne Sandberg obviously isn’t afraid to mix things up. Not only did the Phils skipper decide to leave the hottest bat in the clubhouse in the rack tonight, he’s sitting All-Star left fielder Domonic Brown as well.
Here’s the full lineup, courtesy of MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki.
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Tonight's lineup @ TEX. Ryno isn't afraid to change the look pic.twitter.com/1HCrndWtmS
— Todd Zolecki (@ToddZolecki) April 1, 2014
Clearly, much of the line of thinking here is the Phillies are going up against a lefthander in Martin Perez (10-6, 3.62 in '13), so Ryno wants to stack the lineup with right-handed bats. That doesn’t make the decision any less curious though given the players we are talking about—Asche and Brown—and the guys replacing them—Jayson Nix and Cesar Hernandez respectively.
I’ll reserve judgment until we see how the game plays out, but it’s an interesting move to say the least.
A.J. Burnett (10-11, 3.30 in '13) takes the hill for his first official start for the Fightins.