Zach Eflin was roughed up in his major league debut for the Philadelphia Phillies.
Everyone has some nerves on their first day of everything. School. Job. First post. It’s normal. I’m sure Philadelphia Phillies pitching prospect Zach Eflin was quite nervous yesterday. It was his major league debut and he was facing the Toronto Blue Jays who have Josh Donaldson, Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista in their lineup. No easy task.
Eflin made the jump from AA to AAA this year for the Phils where he was 5-2 with a 2.90 ERA. He’s not a big strikeout guy. He only struck out 55 in 68.1 innings. Eflin was originally drafted by the Padres and was sent to the Dodgers in the Matt Kemp trade. Then, Eflin was sent to Philly in the Jimmy Rollins deal. According to mlbpipeline.com, he’s the Phillies’ 13th-ranked prospect.
Back to his debut yesterday. It wasn’t that it was bad. It’s that it was historically bad. Eflin gave up nine runs and nine hits in just 2.2 innings as the Phillies lost 11-3. How bad is that in a debut?
Zach Eflin finished with a Game Score of 5 in his big-league debut. that's the sixth-worst debut mark in recorded baseball history
— Jeff Sullivan (@based_ball) June 14, 2016
The 8 ER allowed by Zach Eflin are the most allowed by a Phillies pitcher in his major-league debut since Russ Miller in 1927.
— Matt Gelb (@MattGelb) June 14, 2016
Eflin was taking the spot of Vincent Velasquez who is injured.
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Baseball is a game of adjustments. This was Eflin’s first start and I’m sure he’ll make an adjustment or two in order to get more outs and be more effective.
Eflin’s next start will be at home against the Arizona Diamondbacks.