CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) Jake Arrieta felt fine after his second spring training start with the Philadelphia Phillies, and that was more important than the mediocre results.
Arrieta allowed four runs, seven hits and struck out three over three innings Tuesday in the Phillies’ 5-5, nine-inning tie against the Pittsburgh Pirates. He also had a balk and a throwing error on an errant pickoff attempt to first base.
”My body is bouncing back really well the after day,” Arrieta said. ”I haven’t been sore at all, knock on wood. Arm strength, I’m happy where it is. All signs point in a really positive direction.”
He threw 45 pitches, up from 31 in his first outing on March 22, when he pitched two innings against Detroit.
Arrieta and the Phillies finalized a $75 million, three-year contract on March 12, a deal that could be worth up to $135 million over five seasons.
”I think he demonstrated he’s a veteran,” Kapler said. ”He ran a pretty high pitch count early on (26 in the first). He was featuring a lot of fastballs and he just said `look, I’m going to make an adjustment here. I’m going to my breaking ball, my offspeed’ and started to have really efficient innings.”
A 32-year-old right-hander. Arrieta is scheduled to make his first regular season start April 8 against Miami. Aaron Nola is to start Thursday’s opener at Atlanta, and be followed by Nick Pivetta and Vince Velasquez.
”Everything is perfectly on track,” Phillies manager Gabe Kapler said.
Arrieta won the 2015 NL Cy Young Award with the Chicago Cubs and helped them win the World Series the next season, going 2-0 in a seven-game series against Cleveland. He was 14-10 with a 3.53 ERA last year. He went 68-31 with a 2.73 ERA in five seasons in Chicago after going 20-25 with a 5.46 ERA for the Orioles.
Gregory Polanco and Starling Marte had consecutive one-out singles, and Josh Bell hit an opposite-field three-run homer to left during a four-run first inning. Francisco Cervelli hit a two-out double and scored on Colin Moran’s two-base hit.
Notes: Phillies RHP Jerad Eickhoff, expected to miss four to seven more weeks with a strained lat muscle, resumed playing catch. He was 4-8 with a 4.71 ERA last season and was slated to be part of Philadelphia’s rotation this season.
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