Anytime Adam Eaton takes the mound Phillies fans expect the same results.  He’s going to give up a ton of hits, walk a fair share of hitters, give up runs early, and the Phillies will be playing catchup the entire game.  His stats from last season (6.29 ERA and 1.64 WHIP - worst among all MLB starters), exemplified this.  Amazingly he won 10 games last season, but the responsible party was the Phillies offense, not a dominant Eaton.

Phillies fans have such a distaste for Eaton, that when he’s scheduled to start, it’s already chalked up as an automatic loss.  Yesterday was no different, but there was something different about Eaton. 

No goatee…

Even though Eaton decided to change his facial hair expectations weren’t any different yesterday as he made his season debut.  He struggled all spring, dealt with an aching back, and knew he wasn’t guaranteed a spot on the roster.  Fortunately for him Travis Blackley or Francisco Rosario were unable to claim the fifth spot in the rotation.

From the first pitch, he looked to be in mid-season form.  His first pitch hit home plate and three balls later Reds leadoff hitter, Corey Patterson, found himself on first base.  Patterson promptly stole second, advanced to third on a groundout, and scored on a Ken Griffey Jr.sacrifice fly, giving the Reds and early 1-0 lead.

The second inning was no different.  The leadoff batter again was put on base as Adam Dunn singled.  He followed that by walk to Edwin Encarnacion, and a single to Scott Hattesberg, giving the Reds a 2-0 lead.

Then something clicked in Eaton.  He looked like a different pitcher.  He shut the Reds down.  He was changing speeds, and his pitches had good movement.  More importantly he had command.  The next hit Eaton allowed was a single to Paul Bako in the fifth, followed by another single to Bako in the eighth. 

That’s right, Eaton was still on the mound in the eighth inning, with a 3-2 lead.  After giving up the single to Bako, he got Joey Votto to ground into a double play.  It appeared Eaton was going to get through the eighth with the lead.  That was until Patterson hit a game tying home run to center field. 

After Patterson’s home run Eaton unravelled a bit.  He gave up a double to Jeff Keppinger (that went off the glove of Pedro Feliz), and after intentionally walking Griffey, was pulled in favor of Tom Gordon.  Gordon struck out Brandon Phillips to end the eighth.  Eaton left the game with a 3-3 tie.  Eaton’s final line: 7.2 IP, 6H, 3ER, 4BB, 2K.

This was a very encouraging outing for Eaton.  Although he didn’t get the win (the Phillies ended up losing 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth), the outing was a confidence builder for Eaton and the Phillies.  As encouraging as his start was, I’m not going to run out and pick up Eaton for my fantasy team, but will be interested to see how he does in his next start. 

For those interested, his next start is Thursday against the Mets.  Eaton has been a Mets killer in his career going 5-0 with a 2.68 ERA.  Regardless of past success, hopefully we won’t see the return of the goatee.