Philadelphia Phillies: Spencer Howard throws no-hitter in minor league playoffs

In his first full season in the Philadelphia Phillies system, Spencer Howard put an exclamation point with a no-hitter to send Lakewood to the finals in the South Atlantic League on Friday night.

After initially walking on with Cal Poly, Spencer Howard was seen by many in the 2017 draft as a very intriguing draft prospect. He had excellent stuff, and his numbers were electric, with a 1.95 ERA and 97 strikeouts over 87 2/3 innings, but he wasn’t even a full-time starter with Cal Poly his draft season, which led to him falling to the Philadelphia Phillies in the 2nd round.

The Phillies wanted to work with Howard to really develop his repertoire. He had built up his velocity to the point where he could touch upper 90s late in his starts at times, but his ability to hold and consistently show his velocity from start to start was something he needed to work on. He has a change that has developed into an average pitch along with a slider that can generate both weak contact and swing and miss. He added a hard curve last season and worked to find the feel on the pitch this year.

His first full season has been spent entirely with Lakewood as the 6’3″ righty worked to build stamina and consistency in his game and feel for sequencing his repertoire. The final numbers were solid, with a 3.78 ERA and 1.26 WHIP over 112 innings, posting a 40/147 BB/K ratio, breaking down to an 8.6% walk rate and a 31.61$ strikeout rate.

What was most encouraging was how Howard finished the year. After a swoon in May and June, Howard finished strong, starting with his last start in June. In those last 11 starts of the season, he posted a 2.12 ERA, 1.10 WHIP, a 9% walk rate, and a 34.62% strikeout rate. He did that while allowing an above-average hit rate, so he was actually UNLUCKY while posting those impressive numbers!

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Howard needed every bit of his impressive game on Friday as Kannapolis starter Parker Rigler allowed just one run. Howard allowed two base runners, with two more reaching on error. His toughest inning was the top of the 3rd inning, when he had two runners reach on error and allowed his only walk of the game, but he pitched his way out of the inning.

Interestingly, the same batter that Howard walked in the 3rd inning is the only player that Howard allowed to reach base in any other way, hitting Tyler Frost with a pitch in the 6th inning. Howard needed just 103 pitches to complete the game, finishing with 9 strikeouts.

Howard and his Lakewood BlueClaws teammates will represent the Phillies in the South Atlantic League championship series against the Lexington Legends of the Kansas City Royals organization, beginning Monday night in Lexington.