McGowan back with Phillies and has new long-relief role
Dustin McGowan has a new job title. Not only is he a Phillies pitcher again, he is...
“He’s our long g uy,” Ryne Sandberg said of his veteran bubble pitcher who long- re -lieved through 41 pitches in a 7-5 loss to the Giants Saturday.
“Early on in the season he’d had a spot start, and went 75 pitches and he was built up to two or three innings at that point ,” Sandberg said . “He has that kind of an arm and he bounces back real well. We know that about him, so he was the g uy to go in there and give us some leng th.”
McGowan, who has lost his one start this season April 23 against Miami, a lso went 3⅓ innings in that outing. That he got sent back to the Lehigh Valley Iron-Pigs last month didn’t deter him, since McGowan, 33, is also l ong i n the experience of riding the rails between the minors and the big leagues.
He k now s what it means to do whatever he has to do to keep his ride going.
“If they had asked me to go back out I would have went back out, seeing what I ha d,” Mc - Gowan said after being touched for a two-run single in the third inning (runs charged to starter Severino Gonzalez), but then going three clean innings through the fourth, fifth and sixth.
“Either way I would have done what t he y wanted. You’ve got to pitch. I’m tr ying not to think about the things I need to do, I just focus on pitching.”
A former f irst-round d ra f t choice w ith To - ronto who was cast off this year by the Dodgers, McGowan is hoping to focus on going the long haul with a Phillies team that has three star ters who have excelled of late in getting yanked early from games.
“He had real good life on his ball and he even said he felt like he got better the longer he was out there,” Sandberg said of McGowan. “He has got that type of an arm so he’s real good to have in the bullpen.”
Sandberg had Ryan Howard available to pinch-hit in the ninth inning with Chase Utley on first and two outs. But he chose to stay with Cody Asche, who was promptly struck out looking by Giants closer Santiago Casilla.
A sked why he chose not t o go to Howard, Sandberg s a id , “I wa s saving him for (Freddy) Galvis. Cody does have the potential of getting the ( bat)-head out a nd popping one as a le f t - handed hitter.”
Good an s wer, si nc e Galvis, who was scheduled to hit af ter Asche, is hitless in his last 29 at-bats. That has Galvis’ once glimmering batting average down to .265.
“Freddy’s just a lit tle jumpy at home plate,” Sandberg said. “He’s getting out on his front foot and he’s off-balance. He’s been working at that for a few days now; trying to stay back on the ball and stay short with his swing. ... He’s been fighting that for a few days now.”
NOTES » Giants’ Hunter Pence missed his third straight game with a wrist problem. ... Phils’ five runs off Madison Bumgarner ended a streak of eight starts that Bumgarner allowed three earned runs or fewer. ... Sean O’ Sullivan (1- 4 , 5.03) vs. Ryan Vogelsong (4 -3, 4.26) as the series wraps Sunday.