The Arms Buildup Continues

Firebrand reports on today's game, which featured Manny Delcarmen (lost), Joel Pineiro (miserable), Tim Wakefield (OK) and Jon Papelbon (I'll let him tell it):

Papelbon was the most impressive pitcher I’ve seen this spring. He came out guns blazing and struck out the first three batters he faced; Greg Dobbs, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard. In the second inning he got a pop up, ground out and then ended the inning by striking out Aaron Rowand just for good measure. Papelbon was getting the ball up to around 95, and got all his outs on his fastball. He pitched a perfect 2 innings. Only 18 of his 26 pitches for strikes though. I would have liked to have seen him attack the hitters a little more but he was softening the hitters up for the strikeout. At the same time he wasn’t running up his pitch count either. At that rate he could have pitched through the 7th inning comfortably.

The box score is available to complete today's fix.