Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Alvarado suspension caps rough week for ump detente
PHILADELPHIA » The Phillies and Major League Baseball’s umpiring corps haven’t been seeing eye to eye lately. Even before Sunday’s first pitch in the rubber match against the Mets, the “it’s been (blank) days since an incident” board in the Phillies’ breakroom had to be reset.
Jose Alvarado was handed a three-game suspension by MLB for an overzealous celebration Friday that caused the benches to clear. No punches were thrown, but the Phillies still face a series without their top left-handed reliever. Alvarado is appealing and will be available until he gets a hearing.
“There’s so much more emotion that’s allowed in this game and it’s actually encouraged, that I think sometimes things like this are going to happen,” manager Joe Girardi said. “And that’s the fallout. The unfortunate thing is people want to see emotion, but managers don’t want to see players suspended.”
Girardi indicated that he thinks the penalties are exacerbated by COVID-related prohibitions.
It caps a busy week of Phillies runins with the boys in blue. Girardi was ejected Wednesday in St. Louis after Bryce Harper was hit in the face with a 97-mph fastball, then Didi Gregorius took a fastball in the ribs one pitch later. The pair missed five combined games, Harper finally returning Sunday night.
Friday came the Alvarado incident, for which New York’s Dominic Smith and Miguel Castro were also fined, the latter for aiming a brush-back fastball at Rhys Hoskins. Saturday, Harper was tossed from the dugout for arguing a perplexing call by second-base umpire Jose Navas that Andrew McCutchen’s straightline path from first to second in the bottom of the seventh somehow veered out of the basepath.
Girardi didn’t have much good to say about it 24 hours later.
“I don’t think there’s any explanation needed. It’s a poor call,” he said. “There’s nothing that McCutchen did that could possibly warrant even considering that. It’s one of the poorest calls that I’ve seen in my tenure.”
• • • When Girardi spoke four hours before first pitch of the nationally televised game, he was unsure as to the availability of Harper and J.T. Realmuto. But both passed tests in batting practice to earn starts.
Harper hadn’t played since Wednesday’s fastball to the chops by Genesis Cabrera. Realmuto missed two games with a sore hand. The issue cropped up on the wild pitch that decided the getaway-day game in St. Louis, one of two decisive wild pitch/passed balls in recent days.
• • • Vince Velasquez will be on the bump Monday when the Phillies welcome the Brewers to town for a four-game set. Part of the reason it’s Velasquez and not the winner of the No. 4 spot out of spring training, Matt Moore, is that Girardi still hasn’t gotten Moore in a game since he came down with COVID-19.
“Obviously, we want to pitch him,” Girardi said. “There has not been a kind of game that has fit the mold where we would bring him in. It’s kind of frustrating. We’re just in one of these ruts where, and it’s not a bad rut, but they’re all onerun games, they’re all tight and we’re using our late-inning relievers.”
The lefty last pitched on April 17. He was activated from the COVID-19 list April 26. The Phillies have played only one game decided by more than three runs in the 13 games since that last Moore start. And that 12-2 loss last Sunday in Colorado was designated to get Spencer Howard work.
Girardi has both needed to use his key relievers and not wanted to put Moore into an unfair situation he’s unaccustomed to. And because he’s on a starter’s schedule, his side work is so extensive as to be an eitheror, leaving Girardi down an arm that day.
“He’s been able to throw some light sides but not a lot, because you never know when you might need that guy for distance,” Girardi said. “I think the hardest guy to manage a lot of times in the bullpen is the guy that you expect to give you distance. You’re trying to get him built up, you’re trying to get where he needs to be.”
• • • Roman Quinn was reinstated from the COVID-related injured list Sunday. Mickey Moniak was optioned to the alternate site. Quinn, with his .083 batting average and .111 slugging percentage, are back in the lineup in center and batting eighth, at the expense of Odubel Herrera’s 1-for-18 return.