"The Phillies made a short road trip to Dunedin on Tuesday and crossed off another Grapefruit League game from the schedule.

The more relevant event took place in Clearwater, where the guy charged with putting the finishing touches on the anticipated works of art by the four aces climbed back on the mound for the first time in 11 days.

After being shut down by biceps tendinitis following a March 11 outing against Baltimore, Brad Lidge was encouraged by his one-inning stint against a group of Pittsburgh Pirates minor-leaguers. He pitched one scoreless inning, allowed one hit, and threw 16 pitches, including 12 for strikes.

"It actually felt really good," Lidge said. "I kind of thought I was a hair tentative right at the beginning, then everything started to feel good and I was able to throw all my stuff."

Lidge threw more sliders than fastballs, and the velocity on his fastball topped out at 87 m.p.h., but he was encouraged nevertheless.

"One thing that was really hard for me to do before this game was throw my fastball down," Lidge said. "I kept leaving them up, and my shoulder feels to the point now where I can angle my fastball again, and really for me that's the most important part of my pitching.

"Obviously, command and velocity are good, but for me if I have good angle on my fastball down, then I can get people to swing at my slider, and that's one thing I was able to do today and I felt really good about that."

If Lidge feels fine physically Wednesday, he said, he expects to pitch again Thursday, when the Phillies play the Minnesota Twins.

The small step Lidge took Tuesday did give the closer a sense of relief."