Darren Byrd Threw his Best Game as a Thresher on Friday

The Clearwater Threshers opened up a four-game series with the Daytona Cubs on Friday night and their starter Darren Byrd threw a tremendous game from the hill, but it was not enough to get the team a win as the offense was nearly non-existent in the game.

The umpires did have a few controversial calls in the game that went against the Threshers, but when your starting pitcher throws seven innings of shutout baseball you have to find a way as a team to take advantage of that. Unfortunately the Threshers could not find the way as they fell 3-1 in the end.

Bear Hill came on from the bullpen in the eighth inning and gave up two runs in the eighth, and another in the ninth to give the Cubs their only three runs of the game. Usually a team counts on their bullpen to keep them in the game, and Bear did not do that, but had the offense shown any type of effort it would have been a mute point.

I cannot put the loss on Bear despite the obvious outcome.

The team's only run came on a Matt Spencer home run in the sixth inning, and besides that the could produce nothing the remainder of the game. The offense managed just six hits with one of those hits coming from pitcher Joe Savery who was in the game as a designated hitter.

Never in my 10+ years of attending Phillies minor league games in Clearwater have I seen a pitcher come to bat even once, let alone be used for the entire game as a pinch hitter.

Either this team has reached an extraordinary low, or the Phillies are shopping Savery out for a trade as they try to race for the playoffs this year.