Eaton, Gordon in midseason form

With only a handful of exhibition games left before Opening Day on Monday, the Phillies should be rounding into form. The hitters should be kicking it into high gear, and the pitchers should no longer be looking to "make their pitches", but instead looking for results. Someone forgot to tell Adam Eaton and Tom Gordon that the season starts next week, because both players got rocked today in the Phillies 14-5 loss to the Tigers.

Eaton, the Phils 5th starter by default, pitched 4 2/3 innings and gave up 6 earned runs, upping his spring ERA to 7.41. Flash Gordon, the closer until Brad Lidge is healthy enough to return, gave up 6 earned runs in 1/3 of an inning to bring his ERA to 12.38. They were facing a scary-good Tigers team with no easy outs in their lineup, but there is no excuse to be getting shelled like that so close to the season. We've come to expect this kind of outing from Eaton, but the Phils are relying on Gordon to hold down the 9th until Lidge comes back. Even after Lidge returns, Gordon is supposed to be the setup guy, but he doesn't appear ready for any high leverage situations.

The only positive thing to happen today for the Phillies was a 3-run homerun by new third baseman Pedro Feliz. It was Feliz's 5th homer of the spring, and he looks like he will be a potent addition to the bottom of the lineup. He's going to hit about .250, but he will also hit 25-30 homeruns.

Here are "highlights" from today's ugly game, courtesy of Comcast SportsNet: