FORT MYERS, Fla. - For eight innings at Hammond Stadium, the Phillies watched the future. Zach Eflin, Jake Thompson and Mark Appel threw strikes. They made some mistakes. They pitched out of trouble.
"A game like today is exactly what I was hoping I'd see," Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said.
The split-squad Phillies who drove more than two hours to beat Minnesota, 4-2, were rewarded with encouraging performances from the organization's top pitching prospects.
Eflin allowed a run on four hits in three innings. He struck out two and rolled a bunch of groundouts. Thompson, the beneficiary of two timely double plays, tossed three scoreless innings.