Bastardo suffers first loss since 2006

Antonio Bastardo struck out seven in five innings of work Thursday.

By Tony Zonca

Reading, PA -- The yard was alive with excitement Thursday night at FirstEnergy Stadium.  Antonio Bastardo, the much-ballyhooed lefty who was leading all of Minor League Baseball with 51 strikeouts, was making his Double-A home debut, and even the visiting scouts in attendance were looking forward to the outing.

After all, the 22-year-old native of the Dominican Republic was unbeaten in 16 starts last season, finishing 9-0 at Lakewood before winning his only start at Clearwater.

In five starts with the Threshers this season, Bastardo was 2-0 with a ridiculous 1.17 ERA and an even more ridiculous 47 strikeouts over 30.2 innings.

Saturday at Harrisburg, Bastardo was a winner in his Double-A debut when he gave up just one run and five hits over 5.2 innings.

Thursday night, though, Bastardo would walk away toting his first loss since 2006, when the Binghamton Mets roughed him up for four earned runs and seven hits -- three of them home runs -- on the way to a 6-1 victory, their third straight in the four-game series.  

Bastardo (1-1) began by striking out four over two shutout innings, then allowed an unearned run in the third when he threw away a two-out grounder.  Home runs by Salomon Manriquez, Fernando Martinez and Nick Evans, his seventh, jacked the lead to 5-0 and chased Bastardo.  He finished with seven strikeouts -- 58, if you're counting at home -- and did not walk a batter.  He threw 99 pitches -- 67 for strikes -- and flashed a fastball that stayed consistently between 92-94 mph.

Martinez, 19, the No. 1 prospect in the New York Mets organization, crushed his third homer of the season in the seventh, a no-doubter to right-center.

The victory went to Salvador Aguilar (2-0) who came out of the pen to make his first start of the season.  He pitched five shutout innings, allowing four hits.

The Phillies scored their run in the sixth when Javon Moran led with a double, moved up on a fly ball and scored on Greg Golson's groundout.

At 15-18, the Phillies fell three games under .500 for the first time this season.  The Mets improved to 14-20.

PHILLERS:  Pat O'Connor, the president of Minor League Baseball, was a visitor at Thursday night's game. . . . With a first-inning walk, Lou Marson extended his Eastern League-best on-base streak to 22 games. . . . With a fourth-inning single, Marson extended his hitting streak to nine games. . . . Javon Moran broke out of an 0-for-11 slump with a pair of hits.  Previously he had gone 12-for-22. . . . The Mets turned five double plays over the last two games of the four-game series.  

DID YOU KNOW THAT former Reading Phillie Darren Daulton was 50-for-60 as a base stealer -- the fifth-best stolen base percentage in big-league history?  Also, in his career he grounded into one double play for every 104 at-bats -- the best GIDP rate in modern history for a catcher.

This story was posted on May 8, 2008