Phillies Injury News: Noah Song Rehab Goes Well In AA Debut

The Phillies can take some positive signs from Friday night’s Reading Fightin Phils game.

In that game, Phillies reliever Noah Song came in during the seventh inning for his fifth rehab appearance of the season.

Song is, of course, pitching his first professional games since 2019. He had been serving in and deployed by the Navy since then.

In this latest outing, his first at the AA level, he was sitting at 93-94 on his fastball for the first inning before falling to 92 as he entered his second inning of work.

In total, he threw 27 pitches in his 1.1 innings of work.

The first inning of work saw Song start with a strikeout of the Red Sox’s 13th-ranked prospect, Matthew Lugo, as well as a lineout from their 10th-ranked prospect, Blaze Jordan. The lone hit he allowed would best be described as a blooper that fell into no-man’s land in left field when it just didn’t have much hang time.

When he came out for the eighth inning, there was a bit of an issue with his command and he allowed a walk on only five pitches to start the inning. Undeterred, he came back with a strikeout (of Red Sox #3 prospect and MiLB’s #87 overall prospect, Nick Yorke). At that point, he had seemingly hit his pitch limit and was pulled from the game.

The bit of an uptick in velocity and some improved command are just what the Phillies are looking for and will likely hope Song can show again – if he can keep on this path, he has a legitimate shot at joining the Phillies rather than being offered back to the Red Sox.

Other Notable Prospect News In The Game

Reading had only 10 hits, but scored nine runs in that game.

The team had five home runs, including one from a growing fan-favorite prospect in Carlos De La Cruz and two off of the bat of 2020 draft pick Baron Radcliff.

De La Cruz also singled in the first inning to notch an RBI and put his team ahead for good (3 RBIs total in the game).