Phillies’ rotation battle heats up

Three arms, two slots:

Pivetta has an electric heater and secondary pitches, but the Phils were able to acquire him due to his control difficulties. In other words, he dominates the opposition when he has average MLB accuracy: 70 percent. But he only had eight acceptable efforts out of 26 for 2018.

In his first opportunity, Pivetta fired four scoreless innings before a three-run fifth. But the right-hander bounced back on March 16: five frames and two earned runs. On the other hand, he will make two more appearances this month.

When fans look at 2017’s stats, Pivetta with a 6.02 ERA and Eflin with a 6.16 ERA have similar results, but the reasons were different. Eflin had pitched through an inflamed elbow until it stopped him. He had a 2.81 ERA for his first five starts and a 13.20 ERA for his last three before landing on the disabled list.

In his first of four starts, Eflin twirled five scoreless one-hit frames and is making a strong case for the rotation. But keep in mind, he still has three more outings to go. And he will have to stay healthy.

Even though Lively had a 4.26 ERA for his 15 starts last summer, he depended on control and struggled in five of those appearances. In other words, the expectation is 80 percent, not 66.6 percent. Translation: He’d have the five spot until somebody replaces him.

Lively, a fan favorite, finished his second extended outing: five innings and three earned runs. He worked three scoreless frames in his previous effort before allowing three runs in the fourth. Two more shots!