Bullpen blows an effective outing by Nola
WASHINGTON » Jeanmar Gomez had survived pitching through the ninth inning Friday night at Nationals Park, which is something he used to know how to do with a fair amount of regularity before his closing skills evaporated.
Now Gomez is simply another right-handed option out of the Phillies’ bullpen, and thus far hasn’t been a good one, just like he wasn’t last September after mowing down the opposition frequently in ninth innings earlier last season.
This time around, Gomez survived the bottom of the ninth because the one-hop bullet hit by Anthony Rendon was flagged fast on the backhand by third baseman Maikel Franco. But with limited bullpen options, Phils manager Pete Mackanin went back to Gomez in the bottom of the 10th, with the heart of the Washington order coming up.
So Bryce Harper started it with a single, and a blink later, Daniel Murphy drove a double to the left field corner, and that fast the Nationals were walking off in a group hug with a 3-2 victory in tow.
It was as predictable.
“For me,” Mackanin said, “the story was Aaron Nola.”
Well, for the Phillies, of course it is. Nola looked strong again two outings into his comeback off elbow issues that ended his 2016 fast as it was season early. He tamed the Nats on six hits over five innings, striking out six and walking none on 90 pitches.
“He gave us five good innings,” Mackanin said. “A few too many pitches.”
Although Mackanin added, “I could have sent him back out for one more (inning),” he admitted, “I’m trying to be careful with him.”
That’s the right thing to do, working the 23-yearold righthander back in as slowly as you might dare. But with a bullpen that, to put it kindly, is in a state of flux, there can be daily consequences to cutting breaks for the starters.
The Phillies have one — count ’em one — lefthanded pitcher on their staff. And Joely Rodriguez hasn’t exactly done much (11.81 ERA in 5.1 innings of work) to instill confidence.
So despite Gomez’s struggles — he’s allowed 20 earned runs in his last 8⅓ innings pitched dating to last Sept. 13 — Mackanin opted to go to him instead of lone lefty Rodriguez to start the 10th against a pair of left-handed hitters who happen to be two of the better left-handed hitters in baseball.
But in case you catch the drift...
“It boils down to who you have available,” Mackanin said. “It’s Rodriguez (or) Gomez, and then all we have left is (Luis) Garcia and (Joaquin) Benoit. If we go (11) or 12 innings, now we’re going to run out of pitching.
“That’s (Gomez’s) job now didn’t to give us multiple innings.”
Because that didn’t happen, and because the Phillies (3-7) aren’t really into scoring multiple runs (except the odd 17-run game here or there), they have dropped four games in a row. The competition they’ve faced of late has something to do with slow start, too.
But the anti-lefty pitching problem has already loomed large. It took one disastrous outing by starterturned-reliever Adam Morgan for him to get shipped back to Triple-A, the lefthanded arms collection getting cut in half with that one transaction.
This staff looked lopsided before the season, when Mackanin explained away having just two leftys on the staff by saying he had a few right-handers who consistently pitched well against left-handed hitters.
But those two left-handed bats scheduled to come up in the bottom of the 10th aren’t just any two leftys. And Gomez hasn’t looked like a guy capable of pitching very well against hitters on either side of the plate.
“Once again, you look at Harper and Murphy, they both hit lefthanders well,” Mackanin said. “That’s the reason I didn’t do that. Plus, if Joely does pitch well for a couple of innings, now I have two guys left, Garcia and Benoit. Certainly you don’t want to run out of pitching.”
Not when you don’t have enough to begin with, no.
But then, against Nationals starter Stephen Strasburg and various relievers, the hitting wasn’t exactly in vast supply for the Phillies Friday, either.
“Not enough offense,” Mackanin summarized.
As for Nola, he thought he could have contributed more than 90 pitches over five mostly sharp innings.
“Yeah, my stuff felt good,” he said after dropping to 1-1. “I feel like I threw a lot of pitches . ... I definitely want to go deeper than five innings and save some of the bullpen arms.
“I got behind in the count a little bit today. That resulted in throwing a few more pitches than I wanted to and needed to.”
*** Phillies prospect Elniery Garcia continues what has been a recent trend for the Phillies: Having a pitcher suspended for flunking a PED test.
Garcia, who this week went on the seven-day disabled list for Reading due to shoulder fatigue, will have a lot longer layoff than he was bargaining for. Baseball slammed him with an 80game suspension for testing positive for boldenone, an anbolic androgenic steroid.
At 22, Garcia is on the Phillies’ 40-man roster, going 12-4 with a 2.68 ERA in 117⅔ innings pitched last season for Class A Clearwater.
Garcia will go on the restricted list, which means a spot will be open on the Phillies’ 40-man list.
Pitchers Alec Asher and Daniel Stumpf were also given suspensions in 2016 for testing positive for PEDs. The Phillies traded Asher this season, and he was just called up Baltimore and is scheduled to start in Toronto Saturday.
Stumpf is in the Detroit organization.
*** NOTES » As for that Phillies starting staff, it’s still only four-deep. No word as yet on who may be called upon to replace Clay Buchholz, who may be headed to the 60-day DL with a right flexor pronator mass and partial tear. The favorite is probably Zach Eflin, who has to prove he’s healthy first . ... A Cam Rupp passed ball allowed Washington’s Chris Heisey to take second with one out in the seventh, and he wound up scoring the tying run on an Anthony Rendon double. Rupp also had a couple of dropped third strikes which required throws to first. “He’s got some issues ... he’s aware of it and he’s working hard to correct any mistakes he has,” Mackanin said.