CLEARWATER, Fla. — Jesús Luzardo made his first start of the spring on Thursday. He did not disappoint. The Phillies left-hander recorded five strikeouts with two hits in three scoreless innings in a 6-2 win over the Boston Red Sox.
Luzardo needed only 38 pitches for his Grapefruit League debut. His velocity ticked up a bit — he hit 98 and 97 mph a few times on his four-seam fastball and his sinker — while his sweeper averaged 87.2 mph.
“Maybe a little bit of adrenaline, getting back out there for my first spring start,” Luzardo said. “But just health. I feel good. Worked hard this offseason to really prepare for this year. Body is in a good spot.
“So I’m glad to see the velocity coming, nice and easy, without having to overthrow.”
Luzardo said he took it easy earlier in the offseason, which was different from previous winters. He thinks giving his body a little break might have helped him.
“Normally I would start getting after it pretty early,” he said. “The season went a little long last year, so kind of started slow and progressively built up to the work that I wanted to.”
Who stood out
Otto Kemp went 2-for-3 with two hard-hit doubles. Leading into Thursday’s game, he only had two hits over his previous 16 at-bats.
“He’s swung the bat pretty good the last few times out,” manager Rob Thomson said. “It’s good to see. One of the games in Fort Myers [on Sunday and Monday], he’s going to play third base, and then he’s going to play left field.
“So, we’re going to move him around a little bit, but concentrate most on left field. But yeah, he’s been really having good at-bats.”
Chase Shugart, who pitched the fifth inning and recorded the first out of the sixth, made a strong impression. The 29-year-old righty, who was traded from the Pirates to the Phillies in January, pitched 1⅓ innings, allowing no hits or runs, with two strikeouts.
“Really good,” Thomson said. “He throws strikes. He attacks. Fastball is mid-90s at times. Cutter is really good, the curveball is good. And he competes. He’s not afraid. He trusts his stuff.”
Quotable
“Tremendous,” Thomson said of Luzardo’s outing. “Velocity was up. Think he touched 98. Got ahead, pounded the zone. First-pitch strikes were great. All of his pitches were working.
“Changeup is really improving, there’s some swing and miss to it, there’s some bottom to it. Everything about him was good.”
On deck
The Phillies will play the Pirates in Bradenton, Fla., on Friday at 1:05 p.m. The audio of the game will be livestreamed on MLB.com.
Despite St. Joseph’s ending the regular season with consecutive losses, it did not waver against Duquesne in the second round of the Atlantic 10 tournament.
The Hawks built a 14-point first-quarter lead on Thursday and, after seeing that lead whittled to six at halftime, turned up their defense to hold the Dukes scoreless for the first 4 minutes, 43 seconds of the third quarter.
That defense allowed St. Joe’s to push its lead back to double figures to secure a 66-45 win over Duquesne (12-19, 4-14) and earn a spot in the A-10 quarterfinals.
The Hawks (20-10, 10-8) will face fourth-seeded Davidson in the quarterfinals on Friday (1:30 p.m., USA app).
Statistical leaders
Guard Gabby Casey missed the Hawks’ regular-season finale with an ankle injury but returned to the lineup on Thursday. She showed no signs of rust and finished with 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting. Guard Jill Jekot delivered a strong all-around performance with nine points and a team-high 11 rebounds. Forward Faith Stinson and guard Aleah Snead each chipped in 10 points.
St. Joe’s guard Jill Jekot made 3 of 4 shots from deep on Thursday.
The Hawks were red-hot from downtown, shooting 10-for-23 on three-pointers, which is the first time they made double-digit threes since Jan. 24 against Duquesne. St. Joe’s held the Dukes to 30.8% shooting from the field and forced 20 turnovers.
What we saw
St. Joe’s jumped out to an 8-2 lead behind a pair of three-pointers from Casey and Jekot. The Dukes tried to battle back, but the Hawks kept the offensive intensity high. Casey and Snead hit another pair of threes to spearhead a 10-0 run midway through the first quarter.
The Hawks made five three-pointers in the first five minutes and held a 21-7 lead. However, their luck from downtown faded, which allowed Duquesne to hang around. The Dukes entered the second quarter trailing, 25-14. They used a 6-0 run in the final two minutes of the first half to head to the locker room down, 34-28.
Defense dominated the first half of the third quarter as both teams struggled to make shots. Amid Duquesne’s drought, St. Joe’s connected on five of its last seven shots in the third quarter.
The Hawks entered the fourth quarter with a 53-35 advantage and never allowed the Dukes to mount a real comeback as they extended their lead to as many as 23 points.
Game-changing play
St. Joe’s led, 43-31, with over four minutes remaining in the third quarter and was looking to put the game out of reach. Jekot stepped up to deliver the basket the Hawks were looking for with a three-pointer that pushed their lead to 15 with 3:33 left in the period.
Then with 18 seconds left in the third, Casey dealt the Dukes’ comeback hopes another blow when she got free for a three and nailed it to give the Hawks an 18-point advantage, their largest of the game to that point.
After more than six months of searching, The Stoop Pigeon has finally found its home. The women’s sports hub will be located at the intersection of Broad and Pine Streets — giving Philly fans a view of City Hall, and the perfect place to reminisce on past championship parades.
“It’s a location that people immediately identify with,” said Lori Albright, the managing partner of The Stoop Pigeon. “As soon as we say Broad and Pine, people are like, ‘Oh my God, that’s where I watched the Phillies parade.’”
The Stoop Pigeon has been in the making for a few years. It all started with Jen Leary’s creation in spring 2024: Watch Party PHL, which hosted monthly events at local sports bars to bring fans together and provide a safe and inclusive place to watch women’s sporting events — with the sound on..
Since then, they’ve continued to grow — and so has the city’s women’s sports team, including the announcement of its own WNBA team — and Leary realized it was time for a brick-and-mortar location.
“It’s been truly amazing to go from where we were two-and-a-half years ago when I started doing this,” Leary said. “I could not find a single place in the city showing women’s sports at all, let alone with the sound on, to where we are now — packing places with like 700 people wanting to watch women’s sports. It’s incredible.
“It just shows you that if you give people a space, they will come out and support women’s sports, but you have to give them the opportunity to do that. And we are doing that here in Philly.”
Watch Party PHL founder Jen Leary holds the “Philly is a women’s sports town” shirt that went viral after Aubrey Plaza wore it to a Liberty game.
The women’s sports hub, which will be open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to midnight, will double as a cafe by day and a watch bar at night. The cafe includes partnerships with several Philly-based companies, including coffee from Rival Bros, pastries from Crust Vegan Bakery and Second Daughter, and drinks, including locally brewed beers, ready to drink cocktails, and non-alcoholic beverages, from Sterling Pig Brewery, with whom they previously partnered for a women’s sports themed beer.
They’ll serve a number of items named after women athletes and Philadelphia favorites. Some of the items include: The Dawn Staley latte, the Victory Veggie Burger (named after Victory Brewing), Ora-cini balls (named after Ora Washington), Vivian Shoe-Stringer fries, a KFC pulled-chicken sandwich in honor of Kahleah Copper’s “KFC” nickname, and a Tastykake bread pudding as an homage to the Philadelphia-based snack brand.
“The goal was to have a local take on a menu,” Leary said. “This isn’t going to be a restaurant, but we’re definitely going to have things that will make people want to come back. We want to make sure they enjoy their time with us and stay. So we’re going to have vegetarian options, we’re going to have vegan options, we’re going to have allergy-free options.”
With a number of big sporting events coming to Philly in 2026 — including the MLB All-Star Game, the PGA Championship, and the FIFA World Cup — Leary, Albright, and their partners, Fawn McGee and Megan DiTolla, plan to open in June.
“We really want everyone to feel welcome,” Leary said. “So we want it to be family-friendly. You can bring your kids. The whole reason we’re very intentional about not calling it a bar is because we want people who don’t drink to feel comfortable there.”
When The Stoop Pigeon opens, it will join Marsha’s on South Street, which opened in September, as the latest sign that “Philly is a women’s sports town.”
As dispiriting as the Union’s loss to New York City FC on Sunday was, something manager Bradley Carnell said afterward felt just as significant.
“We know we’re not quite where we need to be, and that’s totally understandable, but it’s no excuses either,” he said. “Obviously, the team’s not happy, and a lot of it is self-inflicted over the last two weeks, if you look at that — two red cards in two games. And this is something [where] when one guy’s disconnected, or when one red card happens, then we’ve created a mountain [for] ourselves to climb.”
He then added a believe that “we have a young, hungry, squad, and sometimes the moment gets to us a little bit. And this we have to learn, we have to grow [from], and we have to have these experiences.”
With no midweek game this week, Carnell had time to address that, and he said during his meeting with media on Thursday that he did so.
Olwethu Makhanya was sent off from Sunday’s loss to New York City FC after drawing his second yellow card of the game.
“We’ve expected more out of ourselves in terms of being sharp, mentally and cognitively,” he said in a news conference ahead of Saturday’s game against the San Jose Earthquakes at Subaru Park (7:30 p.m., Apple TV). “Just thinking about an ‘if’ moment or a follow-on from a set piece or a follow-on from an attacking sequence.”
There was some good news, as new left back Philippe Ndinga arrived in Chester. But he isn’t ready to play yet, and Carnell signaled it might be a few more days.
“He’s raring to go, but there’s a bit of paperwork to get through, a bit of medical stuff to get through,” Carnell said. “Push comes to shove, we can get him squad-ready, potentially. But I don’t want to just make a claim like that just yet.”
So for now, the Union are going to have to sort things out with what they have. After hosting the Earthquakes on Saturday, Mexican power Club América will come to town Tuesday to start the Concacaf Champions Cup’s round of 16.
One step can come at the attacking end of the field. Carnell said he counted 20 instances in just Sunday’s first half “where we had a positive transition moment, where we turned over the ball and started a sequence in an overload [man advantage], and we don’t come to fruition [with] that.”
Agustín Anello (right) and the Union have yet to score a goal from open play in MLS games this season.
The other can come anywhere, but it starts in the head.
“Self-inflicted red cards, I would say, this is not the way that it should be done,” Carnell said. “Very cheap ways to let your teammates down, and, you know, I think [Olwethu] Makhanya’s learned a good lesson, I think ‘Eze’ [Alladoh]’s learned his lesson, and we can continue to grow as a team.”
When former Union striker Julián Carranza joined Mexican club Necaxa in January, it felt inevitable that his new and old teams would cross paths. Right on cue, it will happen this summer.
Necaxa is one of three teams the Union will face in the group stage of the Leagues Cup, the annual tournament pitting MLS squads against those from Mexico’s Liga MX. The game is Sunday, Aug. 9 at Subaru Park.
The Union dealt Carranza to Dutch club Feyenoord in July 2024, as he wanted to raise his stock for Argentina’s World Cup team. But it didn’t work out for him, as he scored just five goals in 30 games.
JULIÁN CARRANZA STUNS THE SAN SIRO! 😳
The former Philadelphia Union and Inter Miami forward pops up with a massive strike for Feyenoord 💥 pic.twitter.com/5CMGnUC8FE
Then he went on loan to English second-division club Leicester City, and that was even worse: zero goals in nine games, and a lot of time on the bench. Necaxa offered around $4 million to bring him to Mexico, and Feyenoord accepted. Carranza has three goals in six games there so far.
The reunion will be the Union’s second contest of the group stage. All three group games will be against Mexican opponents, and all will be at Subaru Park. The opener will be against traditional power Cruz Azul on Thursday, Aug. 6, and the finale will be Thursday, Aug. 13, against Santos Laguna.
Leagues Cup groups are set based on a combined table of the 18 MLS teams that qualify (the 18 that make the playoffs) and the 18 teams of Mexico’s Liga MX. They are ranked by last year’s regular-season standings, then split in half based on geography.
From there, each mixed pot of 18 teams is ranked again, then split into three groups of six. Each group has one MLS team and one Mexican team from the top third, one each from the middle third, and one each from the bottom third. Each team then plays three games, all against teams from the other country. (The other MLS teams in the Union’s group are Chicago and NYCFC.)
The Seattle Sounders won last season’s Leagues Cup trophy last season after beating Inter Miami.
Yes, this is complex, but we’re almost done. Tournament results are counted in one big table, similar to Europe’s Champions League. The top four MLS teams and the top four Mexican teams advance to the quarterfinals.
The point of it is to have as many MLS vs. Liga MX games as possible, since they’re more interesting than matchups of teams within each league.
For all the technicalities, the big prize at the end is clear. The top three finishers qualify for next year’s Concacaf Champions Cup, with the winner earning a bye into the round of 16.
Three Villanova women’s basketball players received Big East honors on Thursday, including a most improved player of the year award.
Sophomore guard Jasmine Bascoe was unanimously selected to the Big East All-Conference first-team for the second consecutive season. Bascoe averaged 18.7 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists in the regular season. She totaled a career-high 30 points against Fairfield on Nov. 5.
Bascoe leads the Big East in points and assists per game.
Jasmine Bascoe was named to the Big East All-Conference First Team for the second consecutive season.
Junior forward Brynn McCurry was named Big East Most Improved Player of the Year after returning from an ACL tear that sidelined her for all of last season. McCurry was also named to the Big East All-Conference second-team after averaging 10.9 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 3.1 assists. She totaled four 20-point games and scored double digits in 10 of Villanova’s first 13 conference games this season.
After only having two double-digit scoring performances before her injury, McCurry returned to total 17 this season. During her freshman season, she only averaged 2.7 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 11.6 minutes off the bench.
McCurry leads the team in rebounding with 5.5 rebounds per game (159 total) and is second on the team in scoring behind Bascoe.
Kennedy Henry, a Westtown graduate, was named to the conference’s All-Defensive team and unanimously voted to the All-Freshman team. She was a starter in all 27 games this season. The McDonald’s All-American nominee averaged 9.4 points and four rebounds during the regular season. She also led the team in steals (66) and was second in blocks (24) behind senior Denae Carter (34).
Henry is currently tied for the most steals by a Wildcat in their freshman season. She is one steal shy of breaking the record.
Villanova is the No. 2 seed in the Big East Tournament and will play the winner of No. 7 Providence and No. 10 DePaul in the quarterfinals on Saturday at the Mohegan Sun Arena.
The Buffalo Bills agreed Thursday to acquire wide receiver D.J. Moore from the Chicago Bears, two people with knowledge of the trade told The Associated Press.
Buffalo is sending a second-round pick in the draft this year to Chicago for Moore and a fifth-rounder, the people said. They spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the deal cannot become official until the start of the new league year Wednesday.
Moore is coming off making 50 catches for 682 yards and six touchdowns last season as the Bears made the playoffs in Ben Johnson’s first year as coach. The soon-to-be 29-year-old joins the Bills under new coach Joe Brady after quarterback Josh Allen has thrown to a rotating cast of characters at receiver.
TJ Power has only been looked at as a basketball player.
A five-star recruit coming out of Worcester Academy in Massachusetts, his talents landed him at Duke, then his need for opportunity took him to Virginia, but a search for himself brought him to Penn.
Three years at three schools? Power wouldn’t have it any other way.
“That suffering tested my faith and my fortitude,” Power said of his collegiate career before Penn. “And like everyone says, that’s how you get stronger. But that’s real, like as a holistic human, I’m so much more mature and better off right now because I had to leave Duke. I had to make that decision. I had to leave Virginia. I had to go through those moments. And now I’m here, and I have armor. I feel like it’s indestructible.”
After struggling for playing time at Duke and Virginia, Power, a 6-foot-9 forward, has soared under first-year Penn coach Fran McCaffery. Power is leading the Ivy League in minutes (34.7 per game), while averaging 15.7 points and a team-best 7.5 rebounds.
Last weekend, Power posted his best performance of his collegiate career, scoring 38 points against Dartmouth on Friday and then helping Penn gain its first Ivy League Tournament berth in three years with a victory over Harvard on Saturday.
“I’ve been playing better,” Power said before this weekend. “I think [McCaffery] knows this. I have another level that I can tap into here. I’m trying to get to it week by week. It’s different. I probably had the biggest minutes jump in college basketball history.”
Penn forward TJ Power leads the Ivy League with 34.7 minutes per game.
Penn will visit Brown on Friday (7 p.m.) for its final game of the regular season as winners of six of its past seven games, thanks to Power’s resurgence. Penn will then face Harvard in the first round of the conference tournament on March 14 in Ithaca, N.Y., with Yale playing Cornell in the other semifinal.
‘Took a chance’
Power, who grew up in Shrewsbury, Mass., said his father would drive him around the neighborhood as a kid to find local churches and recreation centers to play in games. The pair usually ended their trips at Worcester Academy’s gymnasium.
By his sophomore year, college coaches were rushing to see Power on the court, including McCaffery, then the head coach at Iowa.
McCaffery attended Power’s AAU games, and his presence was quickly felt.
“I had three offensive fouls in the first half,” Power said. “It was terrible, and you know how Fran is with refs. He wasn’t even my coach at the time. Obviously, he’s there to recruit me, and he’s yelling at the ref as I’m playing in an AAU game.”
TJ Power averaged 6.7 minutes in 26 games as a freshman at Duke.
As a senior, Power was named the Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year after winning a state prep school Class AA championship. He accepted an offer to Duke, but he and his family stayed close to McCaffery.
Power averaged 6.7 minutes in 26 games as a freshman during the 2023-24 season, but that didn’t stop him from enjoying his experience as a Blue Devil.
“Duke was one of the best years of my life,” Power said. “Honestly, people from the outside might not think that just because you know basketball and playing time and stuff, but that experience is once in a lifetime.”
Power planned on staying for his sophomore year, but an “uphill battle” for minutes and competition from the incoming class, which included future NBA lottery picks Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel, made Power consider other options.
Leaving Duke meant saying goodbye to his “best friends for life” Sean Stewart, Caleb Foster, and former 76ers guard Jared McCain, but the decision was best for his career.
“Knowing this could go bad,” Power said, “where I’m not playing, the hardest decision I ever made was to leave there. I was really emotional about that because people look at transfers and they’re like, ‘Oh, they’re running from stuff.’ I never pictured myself as that, because I took a chance going to Duke.”
Breaking point
Before the 2024-25 season, Power entered the transfer portal and committed to Virginia, his second choice coming out of high school. Coach Tony Bennett and Power had grown close during the recruiting process.
“I felt rejuvenated,” Power said. “I was going to go there and learn from him. We were really close. That whole summer, I played really well, we looked good, and he had said to me in the recruiting process, because they had struggled the year before, he was talking about how he wants to play faster and change the offense.”
When it finally seemed as though Power found the right fit, Bennett announced his retirement before the start of the season.
“One day in the fall,” Power said. “He comes back, and we’re going into the film room, like we always do, and he just sits down, starts crying, and tells us he’s going to retire.
“I remember it was a feeling I’ve never had before, where my whole body started overheating, and the world was shifting. I was in the front row, sitting right in front of him. That was a hard moment. And I don’t know if I have fully moved on from that.”
Ron Sanchez was named interim head coach, and despite his promise to stick with the offense Bennett wanted to implement, it was never the same for Power. He was injured to begin the season and started just five games, averaging 9.3 minutes in 24 games.
Virginia finished 15-17, Sanchez was fired, and “everyone entered the portal.” According to Power, the new coaching staff didn’t want him.
“You want to talk about emotional,” Power said. “My time at Virginia [was] some of the darkest moments of my life.”
Power had not played consistent basketball in almost two years. He decided to visit Penn at the request of an old friend.
After starting in only five games at Virginia, TJ Power transferred to Penn.
McCaffery, whowas fired by Iowa, was rumored to be heading back to his alma mater.
“I eventually got this job,” said McCaffery, who was hired by Penn in March last year. . “It was an easy discussion because he knew that I believed in him, and he knew that our style of play was perfect for him. He came down to campus on his own. I wasn’t even here.”
Power added: “Penn is a great place, and I’ve come to learn that even more, but in the recruiting process, I was like, wherever Fran goes — I’m going. I’m playing for that dude. If Fran wasn’t here, I wouldn’t be here.”
‘I’m coming here’
Power called his parents, bought a couple of train tickets and a hotel room, drove back to Virginia, and left that night on a train to 30th Street Station.
Power had struggled with his connection to the game and his identity around it. Coming off the train at 1 a.m., Power reflected back on a moment when he enjoyed basketball and had a familiar request for his dad .
“I want to see the gym,” Power said.
Power and his parents pulled up to the Palestra.
“My dad gets out, and just like our drive around Worcester, shakes on doors,” Power said. “We go to the Palestra front door. He shakes it three times. It opens, and I walk in, and for some reason, the lights are on. I’m standing right there, 1:30 in the morning. It’s just my dad and me. We’re looking at the Palestra. I’m coming here. I got to come here.”
TJ Power came to Penn to play under coach Fran McCaffery. “If Fran wasn’t here, I wouldn’t be here.”
Fran was committed to helping Power get back on track, which showed in their first few practices together.
“If I struggled, he knows what’s on the other side of that wall once I climb it,” Power said. “So that was a huge factor in my decision. I wanted someone I could trust again, and someone who has my back when I inevitably struggle.
“The first thing Fran said when he called me was, ‘We’re going to have fun playing basketball again.’ No other coach said that.”
Power has returned to the form that made him a five-star recruit in high school. And he has found a home — on and off the court.
After years of chasing the best opportunity to help him go pro or get the most playing time, Power chose Penn for another reason: to find who he is outside of the sport.
“Basketball used to be my identity,” Power said. “People ask me, ‘Who am I?’ I play basketball, I’m a basketball player. When I switched that to my relationship with God coming first, and then my identity is built through that relationship with God. …
“That path is so much more rewarding. My identity comes first, and … my mission is to play well, and I think that’s going to give me what I want.”
Perhaps the lone bright spot in the 76ers’ blowout loss Tuesday to the San Antonio Spurs was Jabari Walker, who entered the game in garbage time and scored 20 points in 19 minutes, 29 seconds on 7-for-10 shooting.
Walker later told reporters that he’d “rather not sleep and just get back out there right now.” Walker woke up feeling good Wednesday morning, and he even picked up a new car after spending most of February Ubering around Philly.
That blissful state was threatened for a brief moment.
“I scratched it,” Walker said. “I talked to somebody coming in, I told them the story, they’re like, ‘It’s going to get better for you today.’ I was like, ‘All right, OK, I’m in my zone right now. I’m in basketball world. Whatever happened before stays out.’ So when I saw the first two [shots] go in, I was like, ‘OK. All right. This is a whole new world. I’ve got a chance to redeem myself.’”
Redeem himself he did. Walker scored 22 points on 7-of-12 shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds in the Sixers’ 106-102 win over the Utah Jazz. Walker’s final two free throws secured the game for the Sixers in the dying seconds of the fourth quarter.
Walker, who started the season on a two-way contract, exhausted his 50 games of eligibility just before the All-Star break, which kept him out of four games before the team converted his contract to a two-year standard deal on Feb. 16.
He’s been in and out of the lineup and seen his minutes fluctuate as the Sixers vacillate between levels of health. VJ Edgecombe was added to the injury report Wednesday with a back bruise, leaving the Sixers down four starters. Nick Nurse said pregame that they were going to need more from guys further down the bench.
Sixers forwards Jabari Walker and Dominick Barlow have both had their two-way contracts converted to standard deals.
Walker made his first six shots from the floor, starting with two quick threes in the first quarter, providing critical energy off the bench in addition to his usual effectiveness on the boards.
“People that really know me, I’m actually kind of crazy,” Walker said. “I talk a lot, and something’s really wrong with me, but I get a chance to let it out on the court.”
Nurse said that in practices and shootarounds, the coaching staff has been working to give Walker as much positive feedback as possible to try and get him to be more aggressive with his shot.
“We’ve been trying to get him to play like that because he’s a really good shooter,” Nurse said. “You just have to get used to the NBA feel and having enough [confidence] to pull the trigger on them. Noticeably better in his last few games. He’s just running the floor, ball comes to him and he’s open, and he just, not much hesitation on him.”
That support from Nurse has been there since Day 1, even before Walker felt like he’d earned it. “Him being vocal like that makes nights like this happen,” Walker said.
The injury status of Edgecombe and Joel Embiid is uncertain, and Paul George doesn’t return from a 25-game suspension for banned substances until the end of the month. With so much in flux, the Sixers don’t quite know what the best version of their lineup is or what their rotation will look like during a potential playoff run.
In the interim, games like Wednesday’s win provide critical opportunities for bench players like Walker to show what they can do in an expanded role. Walker said he thought his scoring likely masked some improvements he needed to make defensively, but he believes there’s a role on this team for him, even when the team is healthy.
“If my minutes have to go down, I’ll take it,” Walker said. “That’s what I signed up for. That’s the role I knew I was getting into. We have great, great players, we’ve got Hall of Famers that have to come back, so somebody has to take those minutes, and these are guys that get paid to do so. My job is to fill in and do exactly what I’m doing while they’re out.”
CLEARWATER, Fla. — A few days ago, a custom clothing vendor, Lindsey Tamblyn, came to BayCare Ballpark. Brandon Marsh was familiar with her work. When he was in the midst of his first spring training with the Phillies in 2024, J.T. Realmuto bought him one of Tamblyn’s suits.
It made Marsh feel like part of the group. So much so that he “jumped on” Realmuto and hugged him afterward.
When he heard Tamblyn was returning last week, Marsh decided to pay it forward. He walked up to 22-year-old prospect Justin Crawford.
Marsh told him to pay a visit to Tamblyn, give her his measurements, and pick out any suit he wanted.
“I said, ‘Go, get you a suit, bro,’” Marsh recalled, “‘because God willing we’re going to be in the playoffs again this year. And you’ve gotta look nice.’”
Crawford, who describes his fashion sense as “basic,” picked out a sleek black jacket.
“I told him he didn’t have to,” Crawford said, “but he insisted.”
Crawford appreciated it. This is a big season for him. He is expected to be the Phillies’ opening day center fielder, a position that has been a persistent black hole for the last few years.
Phillies center fielder Justin Crawford is slashing .316/.350/.474 through 19 at-bats this spring.
If all goes according to plan, he would be the first 22-year-old everyday position player for the Phillies since Jimmy Rollins. It is a lot of pressure for someone who just a year ago got the right to legally drink.
As a player, Crawford is polarizing. Much has been made of his ground-ball rate, which has steadily lowered as he’s climbed up the minor league ranks, but is still relatively high. In 2023, it reached 69.7% across single A and high A.
Crawford dropped it to a career-low 59.4% at triple-A Lehigh Valley in 2025. He brings elite speed, and above-average contact skills. He hits the ball hard. But fans and pundits alike have questioned whether that matters if he can’t consistently lift it in the air.
The prospect tries to avoid this chatter. He’s off social media, and has a good support system, full of former major league players: his father, Carl Crawford, his godfather, Junior Spivey, and his hitting coach, Mike Easler.
“When you’re around people who know what they’re talking about, and have done it for a long time, [they] can keep you on that track,” Crawford said. “To be like, ‘No, forget what those people are saying. Just play your game. Be you.’ That’s probably the best advice I’ve received from anybody.”
The Phillies have provided some support, too. Crawford said manager Rob Thomson called him this past winter. His message was for the prospect to “be himself” and get ready to compete for a starting role in camp.
Thomson followed up after the Phillies signed Adolis García to play right field.
“I called him again,” he recalled, “and said, ‘Look, this signing doesn’t mean anything for you. You’re still grinding for that center-field job.’”
All of these gestures have made Crawford feel more confident this spring, in which he’s hitting .316/.350/.474 through 19 at-bats.
But he’s developed a special kinship with the 28-year-old bearded outfielder.
“Marshy’s a great guy,” Crawford said. “He really took me under his wing, honestly, since Day 1. So that’s someone I’m really fortunate to be around, and play next to, hopefully this year. He’s the best.”
Brandon Marsh “is the best,” says Justin Crawford, who has appreciated how his left fielder has looked out for him this spring.
‘I’ve got the aux’
When Marsh was a 23-year-old rookie with the Angels in 2021, he had an abundance of veteran mentors to lean on. There was three-time MVP Mike Trout, Justin Upton, Dexter Fowler, and Jon Jay.
All of these players helped him, in myriad ways, but with the same overarching message.
“I was trying to be Super Man,” Marsh said. “They helped ease the game for me. And I’m just trying to do the same thing for J Craw.”
With that in mind, Marsh made a point of introducing himself to Crawford early last spring. He went out of his way to make things easier for Crawford, like offering to drive him when the team traveled to different ballparks across the state of Florida.
Thomson doesn’t allow players with less than three years of service time to drive themselves to road games. Crawford didn’t have any service time, so he assumed he’d have to take the bus.
But Marsh presented another option. They’ve continued to stay carpool buddies this spring, and it’s allowed them more time to get to know each other.
Of course, there were rules attached. Marsh would be in charge of the music, which in previous years might have meant a lot of Lil Uzi Vert. Now, not so much.
“I still love Lil Uzi,” Marsh said. “But I’ve been on a huge Larry June and Freddie Gibbs kick. So, more of a smooth rap instead of … like, you know, bang your head off the front windshield.
“But yeah, learning to find moments that are calm and stuff like that. I’ve got the aux.”
Like the Angels veterans did with Marsh, he has encouraged Crawford to not put pressure on himself. To stay true to his game — regardless of what others think.
He’s provided another support system for the young outfielder, within the clubhouse.
To some, buying a suit jacket, or giving a pep talk, or making the two-hour drive to Port Charlotte, Fla., may not mean much. But to Crawford, it does. And he doesn’t take it for granted.
“He’s just super genuine and super welcoming,” Crawford said of Marsh. “Those are the type of guys you want to be around.”
Last offseason, the Flyers brought in John Garbarino to help younger players hold their own during fights on the ice. He had an ideal resume for the job: The South Philly native is an undefeated middleweight in the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship.
But early Sunday morning, the fight venue was a narrow street in Center City, where the closing-time bar crowd watched Garbarino pummel the plexiglass vestibule of Barstool Sansom Street and scream obscenities at people inside.
Garbarino, aka “Johnny Cannoli,” then destroyed an onlooker’s cell phone, sparking a seven-person fracas in the middle of the street.
Part of the incident was captured in a two-minute video obtained by The Inquirer on Wednesday.
The video shows that there were at least two uniformed officers at the scene, but they did not make any arrests. Instead, according to one eyewitness, an officer gave Garbarino a fist bump after the altercation.
A police spokesperson said the incident is under investigation.
Reached by phone Tuesday, before video of the incident surfaced, Garbarino denied hitting anyone and said that he was not the aggressor.
“If anything, I broke it up,” he said.
Although the police fist bump is not seen on video, Garbarino confirmed that it occurred and that the officer is a friend of his.
Garbarino, 30, did not immediately return messages left Thursday morning about the video footage.
After this story was published online, a Flyers spokesperson said Garbarino was retained for a one-time training last summer and was never paid by the team. “There is no ongoing relationship,” the spokesperson said.
On Tuesday, Garbarino said that he had been a “special guest” at Barstool on Saturday night, and that he left for an hour before deciding to return “for another reason.” He declined to elaborate.
According to a Barstool employee working that night, Garbarino and a group of associates were asked to leave the establishment at 2 a.m. because they had become unruly and it was closing time. Barstool management did not respond to a request for comment.
The Barstool employee said once the group was outside, Garbarino and an unknown associate began violently pounding on the door to get back in — which is where video shot from across the street picks up. Garbarino can be seen unsuccessfully trying to force the door open.
Marques Reed, who was working at a nearby bar, said people on the street started to film the two men thrashing at Barstool’s winter vestibule, causing the whole structure to shake.
The video shows Garbarino — a former sous-chef at Del Frisco’s who later worked at Michelin-rated Alinea in Chicago — unloading on the vestibule with a half dozen punches and elbow strikes while yelling at Barstool staffers or bar patrons watching from behind wobbling plexiglass.
After failing to break intoBarstool, Garbarino stalks over to a group of onlookers.
“Garbarino comes across the street and says, ‘I’ll knock you the f— out,’” Reed said.
Garbarino then grabs an onlooker’s phone and spikes it onto Sansom Street, obliterating the device. That man goes after Garbarino as he is walking away, but a Garbarino associate grabs the man by the shirt collar. The man responds by throwing a punch at Garbarino’s associate.
A third member of Garbarino’s group then punches the man whose phone was destroyed, and he falls down. He punches him again when he attempts to get up, sending him reeling backward and out of frame.
Garbarino then appears to show restraint as he is face-to-face with a man he had shoved, and he seems to be trying to de-escalate the situation before walking away.
Moments later, though, someone yells an obscenity at Garbarino, who reengages with the man with the broken cell phone. That man pushes Garbarino and takes a swing at him, missing. Garbarino tackles him to the ground.
“John, don’t hurt him!” one of the men with Garbarino yells. Then, a woman with Garbarino kicks the man while he’s down.
After they get up, Garbarino shoves another man in the face, then sucker punches the man he had tackledwhile he appears to be arguing with the woman.
Garbarino on Tuesday vehemently denied throwing any punches and disputed a since-deleted Reddit post on the incident that described him as the aggressor. He said he was trying to defuse a situation he characterized as a “little scuffle.”
“I can’t control the world,” he said. “I’m not a referee.”
He did confirm one aspect of the Reddit post.
“The only thing that was accurate was the fist bump from a cop,” Garbarino said. “He was a friend of mine.”
Reed said he was troubled by the attack and the lack of action by police.
“Why is this sanctioned bare-knuckle boxer wildin’ out at a bar, beating on a door, then beating people up? Didn’t he just have a fight not that long ago?” Reed asked.
(He did, in fact: KnuckleMania VI, last month at the Xfinity Mobile Arena. Garbarino is now 4-0, having defeated Kaine Tomlinson Jr. by TKO in the fifth round.)
“This dude was a maniac. He was going crazy,” one witness said of Garbarino. He asked not to be named because it could adversely affect his employment.
The witness said he was shocked that police laughed it off and walked away.
“Everybody was like, ‘You’re just letting him go?’” the man recalled bystanders asking police. “The cops kind of thought it was funny. That’s a very old-school Philly thing that I didn’t think was a thing anymore.”
Eric Gripp, a police spokesperson, said that a complainant reported being assaulted shortly after 2 a.m. Sunday, and that the case is being investigated by Central Detectives. He declined to provide any additional details about the complainant or the alleged perpetrator, or comment on the police response at the scene.
Garbarino, who grew up playing hockey, said given his “position with the Flyers” and his recent success in the Philadelphia-based Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, he is trying to do “damage control” this week over the allegations in the Reddit post. He dismissed the claim that he knocked someone out as “a joke.”
A representative for the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Garbarino said he would like to put the situation “to bed” as he pursues a world title.
“I’m obviously a popular guy in Philly,” he said. “I know violence pretty well. Nobody got beaten severely.”
