Johan Santana looked really good today. His fastball was coming in around 88 mph for most of the day and he touched 90 mph a couple of times. At one point he went from a 90 mph fastball to a 77 mph change-up, which was very encouraging. The main thing I saw from Johan was that he was throwing with ease. Everything looked smooth and he was finishing consistent. There were a couple hard hit balls and he started to lose his command towards the end, but for his second start of spring training it was very impressive.
I was also excited to see Murphy playing second base for the first time in person. He looked good over there aside from when him and Johan set up a pick-off attempt at second. He sort of just fell over after receiving the throw, and it looked really ugly. That is something they need to do a few more times this spring so Murphy can get use to taking those throws live in games. It’s one thing to do it during drills, its another to do it in an actual game situation.
Jon Rauch looked real bad today. He came into the game and gave up three hard hit singles almost instantly. His fastball was just flat and it had very little life on it. His curveball looked decent, but he has to get his fastball working.
It was a very wet game but I still enjoy my first game out in Port St. Lucie. People were excited to see Johan pitch and there was a lot of energy in the crowd. At one point a fan yelled out to Hanley Ramierz asking where Jose Reyes was. I was kind of wondering the same thing.