Chase Utley Belts a Pair as Phillies Top O's; Eric Sogard Batting .538 for A's

Players of the Day for Saturday, March 23, 2013

Grapefruit League

Chase Utley

Chase Utley and the Philadelphia Phillies wasted little time in knocking off Grapefruit League-leading Baltimore, scoring ten runs in the first four innings before the O's finally put a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth en route to a decisive, 13-4 win on the road.

Utley, who missed the first half of last season due to injury, is healthy this time around. He blasted a pair of homers off O's starter Wei-Yin Chen, driving in four runs to get Philly off and running.

The win got the Phillies to .500, with a 13-13 mark. Baltimore remained in first place, leading Atlanta by 1 1/2 games and Detroit by two. Philadelphia is tied with Minnesota, Boston and the Mets, 4 1/2 games out.

Cactus League

Eric Sogard

Meeting their Bay-area rivals at the Giants' Springtime home in Scottsdale, Arizona, the Oakland A's roughed up starter Tim Lincecum for five runs in the opening three innings and proceeded to punish a parade of six San Francisco relievers in a 13-5 romp.

Yoenis Cespedes, Adam Rosales and Eric Sogard each homered, Cespedes touching up Lincecum with his third Spring homer.

Sogard added a pair of singles in three at-bats, driving in two runs and scoring twice against the Giants.

Eyeing the starting shortstop position, Sogard, who played in 68 games for the A's from 2010 through 2012, is batting a remarkable .538 though 20 games. He has 21 hits in 39 at-bats. His homer was his first of the exhibition season, upping his RBI total to six.