Phillies pitching collapse has them limping out of Atlanta

The Philadelphia Phillies pitching collapse may seem to have happened overnight, but there were rumblings that should have sent management running earlier.

It wasn’t as though the Philadelphia Phillies didn’t know there were doubts about their pitching as the season began. That was a matter thoroughly discussed. Fans, however, didn’t exactly envision a Phillies pitching collapse that would threaten a first-place offense with a potential third or fourth place finish in a matter of days.

A Father’s Day weekend in Atlanta presented team management with exactly that, with two brutal losses and a win in which the team’s supposed ace saw his ERA jump from 4.58 to 4.89 after 4.1 painful innings. Leaving Atlanta, the Phillies trailed by Braves by 2½ games.

But let’s back up a bit. Was this particular Phillies pitching collapse really a sudden matter?

Not exactly.

The seeds for it were contained in the iffy pitchers who became the third through fifth starters to start the season and the substitutions for them who became necessary pretty quickly.

The Bullpen Visits the Doctor

More from Call to the Pen

• Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
• Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
• Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
• Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
• 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals

However, the real problem came by way of injuries to the bullpen that was thought to be much more solid than the rotation. Looking at an updated injured list June 16 only going back to the end of May, one could count five important relievers expected to be out anytime from June 21 to Aug. 1 – Tommy Hunter, Adam Morgan, Victor Arano, David Robertson, and Seranthony Dominguez. Additionally, Pat Neshek had just returned from IL after three weeks on it.

Hunter, a semi-expensive acquisition last off-season, has not pitched at all this season. Robertson, a big-money acquisition in the most recent off-season, has not pitched since Apr. 14 after losing a game and racking up two holds in seven appearances.

Dominguez, a flame-thrower, is apparently going to try pitching through an injury that led to one orthopedic recommendation of Tommy John surgery…sometime…but later. (What could go wrong?) Morgan had been the best reliever (1.96 ERA, 0.709 WHIP) – until May 24. Arano…never mind. You get the idea.

However, while we’re at it, we may as well visit the problems of the top of the rotation that hasn’t helped the situation. Aaron Nola (17-6, 2.37 ERA in 2018) has been struggling in a way no one anticipated. Perhaps one of his six wins has been truly impressive, his seven-innings against St. Louis May 29, when he gave up one earned run on 102 pitches.

Jake Arrieta, the former Cy Young award winner, seems determined to prove he is now only a .500 pitcher after a 10-11 season in ’18, and a 6-5 record thus far this year featuring an ERA 0.35 worse than last year’s 3.96, and a worse WHIP slippage. At the end of 2020 will he be better than a $60 million number two starter who has gone 30-30? Team management has to hope this scenario won’t be part of a longer, rolling Phillies pitching collapse.

The Atlanta Series

So, walking on thin ice on a pond in April became a plunge into the depths that actually occurred in mid-June down south, when it was least needed.

In the first of three games against the Braves, who had taken first place from the Phillies earlier in the week, the pitching collapse began with Hector Neris’ first blown save of the season, the final piece of a 9-8 loss that, in the mid-seventh inning, looked like a 7-2 win for the Phillies.

To Neris’ credit, he returned the following day to save his 15th game in 16 tries as the Phillies came back to win, 6-5. This game, however, featured the mediocre result from Nola detailed above and was his eighth no-decision of the season in 15 outings. In 2018, the right-hander totaled only 10 no-decisions in 33 starts.

Then there was the Father’s Day game when Phillies hurlers surrendered 15 runs on 19 hits (when they scored one), and the most effective of those hurlers was utilityman Sean Rodriguez, who was called on to pitch the eighth inning and gave up (drumroll, please) nothing, striking out one. It was Rodriguez’ MLB pitching debut, but this game’s pitching collapse began with “opener” Vince Velasquez (4 ER) and continued with relief-starters Cole Irvin and Jerad Eickhoff, who gave up six and five runs, respectively.

Bottom line? The best thing that can be said about the Philadelphia’s pitching right now is that they’ve discovered another guy who can eat at least an inning or two if the Phillies pitching collapse continues. Rodriguez was the second position player called on the pitch for Philadelphia this year; the other one is now elsewhere.