Better bullpen giving Girardi more confidence and options
PHILADELPHIA » For as long as Joe Girardi had managed, and that was long enough to run his career win total into four figures, he knew he had the benefit of time.
If something didn’t happen in April, then there was May. If it didn’t click before the All-Star break, there would be opportunity at the trade deadline. If it didn’t happen in the August grind, there would be the pennant push of Septemper.
Other than a brief shift in Miami, Girardi would manage the Yankees, who always seemed to figure something out during a crisis.
Eventually, something good was likely to happen. Then came the Summer of 2020, when the in-house fans would be cardboard thin, and so would any manager’s tolerance.
By the time the Atlanta Braves showed up at Citizens Bank Park Friday, the
Phillies already were in a win-or-worry mode … after just 26 games. Girardi, who had been saying as much recently with his decisions, said the same with his words.
“I think it’s an important series,” the manager was saying, a few hours before a 7-4 victory over the Atlanta Braves in 11 innings Friday. “I really do. I think we’re 3-4 against them. We’ve played OK. I think we’ve given a game away against them, or maybe we could have been 4-3.
“But, no, these games are important. Because we won’t see them anymore.”
Since the Phils will play only teams from the major leagues’ Eastern divisions, it was one more layer of odd that they would be done with the Braves with a month to play. But that’s where they stood Friday, and why they would comprehend the urgency of it all.
Despite everything from an earlier-season commitment to an amateurish bullpen to games lost due to dropped infield popups, there the Phillies Friday were in fourth place, but just two games behind the first-place Braves in the loss column. Even if that rationalization is warped this season because of the discrepancy of games played to this point, it was borderline remarkable.
How did that happen? How did it happen that, before the weekend is out, the Phillies could be only one game behind the Braves with a trade deadline and a month of baseball season approaching? One reason: Girardi was able to settle his team before its strangest season unraveled.
In other years there would be time to develop some franchise showpieces or some appealing arms, not this one. Girardi tried. If the Phillies somehow do not commandeer one of those 16 playoff spots available this season, he still may have to answer for why his first bullpen call as a Phillies manager was placed to someone named Ramon Rosso.
Girardi hung with farmsystem showpiece Scott Kingery for a while. But Kingery, who entered as a pinch-runner in the 10th and eventually provided the game-winning home run in the 11th Friday, was struggling and needed a seat.
So Girardi reacted. Maybe it did have something to do with his background in New York, where failure was never tolerated. But he finally punted on Kingery. And he proved he’d seen enough of Vince Velasquez. And Hector Neris as a closer? Enough, already. Girardi even made enough faces that the front office reacted, giving him a bullpen with a chance to succeed this year, not some other year.
Not that Tommy Hunter or Brandon Workman had been much more than stress-spreaders, but in recent days, at least, they’d been projecting an air of competence. That allowed Neris to drop a spot and into a setup role. Blake Parker, a 35-year-old veteran, had just provided five appearances, allowing no runs. Eventually, David Hale, he of seven years of major-league decency, would help in semi-long relief.
And with all of that, Girardi finally was in a spot where he could go to his bullpen with confidence. Some, anyway.
“I do feel better,” Girardi said, “because I believe guys are starting to throw better and we are much more experienced than we were.”
Zack Wheeler had a strong start Friday, allowing one earned run and striking out three in 5.2 innings and leaving with a 4-2 lead. Adam Morgan, who permitted successive home runs to Austin Riley and Ender Inciarte in the seventh, cost Wheeler a win. But the suddenly reliable Hunter restored order in the seventh, and the revived Neris was nasty in a two-strikeout, scoreless eighth. Workman’s scoreless ninth kept it tied at 4-4, but the Phillies, who hadn’t scored since the fourth inning, let it go to the 10th, when Freddie Freeman would lead off with a runner on second against Heath Hembree. Hembree would surivive, showing the kind of bullpen depth the Phillies should have had at the beginning of the season, not the middle.
That Wheeler started
Friday against Atlanta was in itself interpreted as a sign that Girardi was managing the standings. But he denied that he’d separated him from Aaron Nola in the rotation just to have Wheeler start the opener against the Braves.
“No, not necessarily,” Girardi said. “We just felt that Zack could use an extra day. That’s all. At this point, every game is important. Every win is important. So who you face, yeah, it’s important. But it comes down to wins.”
The Phillies have not won a fifth consecutive game since Aug. 5, 2018. They were in position to do that this weekend. Their lineup and their rebuilt bullpen gave them that chance. Their manager did, too.