Needed reliever Bradley getting close to returning

PHILADELPHIA >> On a day when the Phillies didn’t need to hear from their bullpen, Archie Bradley had some big news.

“I feel a lot better,” the forgotten relief ace said Thursday. “I’ve never really had an oblique thing, so I’m just doing what I’m told to do. It’s a little different this year with the rules of travel, so I haven’t been involved. I’ve just been kind of hiding inside and doing my rehab and trying to get back as quickly as I can.”

While he’s been in hiding, and that goes back to some 10 days into the season, Bradley’s bullpen colleagues have been trying their best to hold their own. Considering Hector Neris and Connor Brodgen are the two most significant holdovers from a bullpen that was more comic relief than relief corps last season, it hasn’t been as bad as could have been expected this time around.

That said, Bradley was expected to be one of the key newbies, along with Jose Alvarado, in what was for all intents and purposes a bullpen overhaul.

As it has turned out, Bradley was sitting at home with pain in his hip or ribs or whatever area is oblique, something that he says crept up on him while he was making four appearances in the early going, allowing runs in two of those outings.

“It came out of nowhere, really,” Bradley said.

But as the Phillies swept a

four-game series with the Milwaukee Brewers via their 2-0 victory Thursday, artfully painted in complete-game fashion by Zack Wheeler, Bradley saw himself as closing in on a return.

“In my head, as long as everything goes well this next week while the team’s away, I should be looking at a return when we get back,” said Bradley, referencing the Phillies’ impending nine-game road trip. “Fortunately, I have been throwing. I never really quit throwing throughout this process.”

That “process” included what he still figures to be nothing more than a head cold, but in these times, that’s all you need to set you back.

“Probably set me back about a week,” Bradley said. “I probably could have been back for this road trip, had I not gotten sick. I just wasn’t feeling well. With the rules and the (COVID) protocols, you have to report those things. So I wasn’t allowed to come in, I think, for almost four days because of the protocols, and then on top of that ... I was coughing and sneezing a lot, which kind of re-aggravated the oblique (injury) a little bit, or didn’t allow it to heal.”

He seems clear of head and oblique now, and thus Bradley will head to Lehigh Valley to pitch some bullpens while his team is on the road. Considering the Phillies have played 15 games that were decided by one run over their first 32 of the season — and five of them coming in a row prior to Thursday’s win over the Brewers — Bradley has been itching to get back.

“It’s been really tough, man,” he said. “I take what I do very personally. I want to win. I was brought here to pitch and help us win. I’ve been sitting inside watching a lot of games go by where I would have been a huge part in these games. I’m one player and we’ve done a great job, but you know, I think I make a difference.” •••

Joe Girardi had to be squirming while Zack Wheeler was trying to finish off a masterpiece against the Brewers. He had faced the minimum number of batters through eight innings, working on a one-hit shutout at 97 pitches when entering the ninth.

Of course, the Brewers picked that time to have their best inning. And considering the prior three games of the series had gone down to the wire, with Girardi desperately trusting three different closers from his overworked bullpen, it wasn’t that surprising to see him stick with Wheeler even as the Brewers threatened and the pitch count grew.

“I just felt his stuff was still good,” Girardi said. “He was still getting ground balls and ground balls can get you out; a doubleplay can get you out (of an inning). That was going to be his last hitter, no matter what. He did an unbelievable job.”

Girardi was so confident that Wheeler was going to find his way though, that after back to back one-out hits by the Brewers, then a flyout for a second out of the inning, he went to the mound. After all, Wheeler was at 117 pitches.

“I just wanted to make sure he was OK,” Girardi said. “You look people in the eyes and trust that they’re telling the truth. He said he was good.”

One pitch and a Daniel Vogelbach popout later, he was.