Herrera just keeps going, and going...
Odubel Herrera is winning cheers these days, and not only from the 20,000 or so fans usually scattered around Citizens Bank Park.
Wednesday, for example, with the noon hour having just tolled, Herrera went to the plate in Camden Yards (Baltimore, not Jersey) to commence a beat-the-rain game between the Phillies and Orioles.
When Herrera, not so far removed from his days as a very raw Rule 5 pick of a player who was never boring — often for the wrong reasons — promptly slapped a single to center off Orioles starter Andrew Cashner in the first inning, the cheers erupted. Not just from a heavy contingent of Phillies fans who had driven down I-95 for the game, but from a cheering section in his dugout.
Yeah, even big leaguers pull for each other, but Herrera’s has become a special situation. That single stretched his streak of games in which he’s gotten on base to 42, or the fifth-longest run of games in that category in Phillies franchise history.
While this streak is nothing like what Joe DiMaggio accomplished in 1941, getting hits in 56 straight games (perhaps the one major individual offensive record that will never be touched), Herrera’s is rather impressive. He has 14 more to go to get to the Phillies’ high mark of consecutive games on base of ... 56.
That was done by Mike Schmidt in 1981-82. He walked a lot.
Odubel Herrera has learned somewhere along the line to like walks, too.
Yet of these 42 straight, the impressive thing is how many of those games had hits by him. Herrera has hits in 34 of those 42 games of the streak.
Even in those in which he didn’t have a hit, he usually had an impact. He walked and scored a run March 31 against Atlanta; had two walks and scored against the Rays on April 5; had three walks and scored twice in an 11-3 win overthe Giants on May 9.
It was around that time that manager Gabe Kapler curiously called Herrera “one of the top 15 hitters in baseball.”
Of course, he’s been that and a lot more. Herrera had only that single in four trips Wednesday, but still led the major leagues with a .357 batting average.
He also has middle of the order numbers with six homers and 24 RBIs at about the quarter point of this season. He had only 56 RBIs all of last year. This year, after Kapler kept him out of the season opener, Herrera has done nothing but prove he is a consummate three-hole hitter.
There is and should be little wonder about all the cheering going on for him.
With the latest rainout Tuesday night, the starting rotation was pushed back a day, and Nick Pivetta responded with a brilliant outing Wednesday. He went seven strong innings, allowing only two hits and one earned run, a first-inning homer by Adam Jones. Pivetta also tied his career high of 11 strikeouts while walking only one batter in a 99-pitch beaut that keyed a 4-1 Phillies win over the Orioles.
Kapler told reporters later: “You have to have dominant stuff to dominate.”
Pivetta, who has flashed a lively fastball before, is now confidently coming at hitters with a varied arsenal of breaking balls to set up the hard stuff.
Original scheduled starter Vince Velasquez will go Thursday in the opener of a series in St. Louis.
On Tuesday, Phillies general manager Matt Klentak said he’s been excited by the progress made in these early weeks by both Velasquez and Pivetta.
“They’ve both been really impressive,” Klentak said. “Not to say that they’ve been perfect, I don’t think any pitcher in baseball is ever perfect. I think that we’ve known both of those guys have elite stuff and elite bat-missing abilities. It’s been a matter of them doing that in games on a consistent basis.
“For the most part, they’ve done that consistently. Not every game, I think each of them has had one or two where they didn’t have their best stuff, but I think that’s baseball. You can go 20 to 25 dominant starts and five to 10 less so, that’ll still make a pretty good year. They’re still young, they still have to continue making adjustments like all of our young players do, but we’ve been encouraged by what we’ve seen thus far.”
(Still?) Starting pitcher Jerad Eickhoff has rejoined the team after a successful rehab stint in Florida. He’s not ready to jump back in just yet, but eventually, someone will apparently have to move to make room for him.
Zach Eflin could return to the minors, but he’s easily pitched well enough to stay. Velasquez could join the bullpen, but lately he’s been showing more command, durability and confidence in his starts. Oh, and there are still no left-handed starters for the Phillies. So...? “Based on his track record, I think that’s what we need to be focused on,” Klentak said when asked if Eickhoff is still a starter-to-be. “He’s earned that. So, we’re going to set our sights on him joining the rotation. We still have a few weeks until that day comes, but when that time comes we’ll make the best decision we can based on the information that we have at that moment. A lot can change between now and his activation date.”
Klentak Tuesday on manager Gabe Kapler’s bullpen decisions: “Well, so far, so good . ... I think what makes this bullpen construction unique is that a lot of the guys in that bullpen possess closer stuff. And some of them have done it in the minor leagues, some of them have not. Some of them have done it in the big leagues, some have not. But I do think it lends itself to matching up late in the game based on our pitchers’ strengths and the opposing hitters’ strengths.”
Naturally, then, Gabe Kapler removed Edubray Ramos Wednesday after he breezed through two strikeouts in the Orioles’ ninth, and inserted previously failed closer Hector Neris to get the last out. Which he did. So Kapler said he put Ramos in because he likes his slider against righties, and Neris because he feels the splitter works well against lefties. Which they did. So regardless of how ticked off his players might get ... whatever works.