Prior yanked after getting 4 outs, allowing 3 runs
By GREGG BELL, AP Sports Writer
March 5, 2007
PEORIA, Ariz. (AP) -- Mark Prior's return didn't answer as many questions as it created.
Prior, who missed most of all last season with injuries, started and allowed three earned runs in got just four outs before Chicago manager Lou Piniella pulled his expected ace from Monday's exhibition game against the Seattle Mariners.
Prior was scheduled to go two innings but left after 40 pitches -- 16 of which were chest-high or higher. After an errant fastball forced catcher Michael Barrett out of crouch and into a reaching snag, pitching coach Larry Rothschild visited Prior on the mound. Mike Morse hit the next pitch into the left-center field gap for a double.
Jeremy Reed followed by hitting a 2-0 pitch 15 feet up the dark hitting background beyond straightaway center field, over the 410-foot sign. That double -- one of three off Prior -- scored Kenji Johjima for a 2-0 lead. After No. 9 hitter Yuniesky Betancourt's hard, one-hop groundout, on a 1-0 pitch, Piniella replaced the 26-year-old right-hander with Ben Howard.
Prior sat on the dugout bench and threw his cap over his shoulder and into the back wall of the dugout.
Howard allowed Willie Bloomquist's RBI single, the third and final run charged to Prior