Michael Spidale stroked a three-run triple off the fence in right field with two out in the eighth inning, and the Reading Phillies made it three straight wins over the Bowie Baysox, this one by 5-3 Saturday night before 7,973 at FirstEnergy Stadium at Reading.
Spidale's fourth hit of the night made a winner of Josh Shortslef (4-1), the third of four Phillies pitchers. Sergio Escalona registered his second save in two nights, and fifth of the season. Phillies left-hander Antonio Bastardo, making his first start of the season, was terrific. He pitched five no-hit, no-run innings, retiring the first 14 batters he faced. Spotting his fastball and showing a variety of off-speed pitches, he struck out three and did not walk a batter.
On a pitch count, Bastardo made 55 deliveries, 39 for strikes. In four previous bullpen appearances, he was 1-0 with a 1.23 ERA. He lowered his overall ERA to 0.73.
The Phillies (10-4) scored a run in the second on Tuffy Gosewisch's RBI double.
The Bay Sox tied it in the seventh off Alex Concepcion, who created his own mess with a two-base throwing error and a run-scoring wild pitch.
The Phillies went ahead 2-1 in their half. Spidale stroked a one-out double to right, his third hit of the night, and came around on Quintin Berry's two-out single to left.
The Sox tied it in the eighth on three two-out singles off Shortslef, the key one by Paco Figueroa.
Chad Thall (1-1) got the loss. Bowie fell to 6-9.
