"Zach Duke had his strongest start of the spring, but Evan Meek allowed three runs in relief, and the Pirates lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-1, this afternoon at McKechnie Field.

Duke, who entered with a 7.71 ERA, allowed one run on two hits over 3 2/3 innings, that on John Mayberry Jr.'s sacrifice fly in the fourth that tied the score 1-1. He struck out four, walked three.

"I felt pretty good," Duke said. "I made some close pitches in the fourth inning that could have gone either way and ended up being balls. I got into a little bit of trouble there but, overall, I felt pretty good."

He threw more curveballs than usual as part of his program for this start, but, more importantly, rediscovered his sinker and got four groundouts.

"It was more sharp today," Duke said.

Philadelphia ace Roy Halladay gave up his first run in three spring starts when Pittsburgh went ahead 1-0 in the second inning on Ryan Doumit's double and Lastings Milledge's RBI single in an exemplary piece of hitting behind the runner.

"I just feel a lot more comfortable, a lot more confident," Milledge said.

His spring average is .381.

Halladay would end up going five innings without another run. He allowed three hits and struck out six."