Is Zach Eflin the third, needed, solid Phillies starter?

Two recent starts by Zach Eflin for the Philadelphia Phillies suggest the team may have found the third starter they’ve needed for six years

If any aspect of the 2019 Philadelphia Phillies would be their Achilles’ heel, at the beginning of the season that surely seemed to be their pitching. Beyond Aaron Nola and Jake Arrieta were question marks among their starters, much as there had been before the opening of the previous season.

In terms of relief, while the squad had been improved, many still looked askance at the team’s unwillingness to designate defined roles for those following the starters, so it seemed more important than ever that at least one of the iffy, younger starters step up. That meant: Nick Pivetta, Zach Elfin, Vince Velasquez, Jerad Eickhoff, or somebody still in the minors.

This reality became more pressing when both Pivetta and Nola didn’t get out of the gate too smoothly.

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Pivetta was sent to Triple-A before Philadelphia had two warm days in a row, seemingly, and was replaced by Eickhoff. Barefoot, Nola was dragging a large bag of rocks along a pebbled path, but surviving on sheer talent.

Arrieta looked a bit better than OK, and Velasquez was pitching well, but not so overwhelmingly well that he got through six full innings more than once in his first six starts.

The only starting pitcher eating a reasonable number of innings besides Arrieta was Eflin, and he had stumbled in a major way after winning his first two starts and posting a 0.75 ERA in 12 innings.

On Apr. 28 and May 5, however, Eflin demonstrated that he has “the stuff” to become the solid third starting pitcher the Phillies have needed for about six years. (Remember, Nola stepped forward last year, making ’19 the first year in quite a while one could argue the Phillies definitively had two solid starters to begin the season.)

In his last April start, Eflin threw only 107 pitches in a complete game, 5-1 victory. The win did come against the Marlins, but that team is loaded with decent, hungry, young players (and a few crusty vets holding spots for other youngsters to be selected). He didn’t walk a batter and surrendered only seven hits.

It wasn’t the flashiest complete game ever, but it was a complete game. Less than two months ago, one writer speculated that there might be no complete games in MLB this season – in a title. Sam Miller was being a bit tongue-in-cheek, but there were only 42 complete games in 2018.

Then, in his next game, Eflin threw seven innings and defeated the Nationals, giving up only one run, thus holding opponents to two runs in his most two recent starts.  The 6-foot-6 righthander, who has five pitches, suddenly looks as though he could be transported back to the late ’80s when pitchers threw almost four complete games a day (according to Miller). Eflin’s WHIP is currently 1.143.

His next start will be key. Can Eflin keep the roll going? If so, the fearsome Phillies offense may have something like the starting staff to appropriately support them.