Phillies: Those illusory last four seats on the bench

Philadelphia Phillies: starting the pressure for the marginal players

It seemed possible that Phillies manager Joe Girardi could send two of them away on or about Aug. 7 without even seeing them play, but after Opening Day that seemed unlikely. In the Phillies first game with Miami, a 5-2 loss, the three least experienced pitchers among their surprise players all played.

Somewhat oddly, Girardi chose the hard-throwing Ramon Rosso to be the first pitcher out of the 2020 Phillies bullpen when he decided to replace Aaron Nola in the sixth inning July 24. Rosso was making his major league debut and promptly fired two wild pitches against the three hitters he faced. He gave up an earned run.

After the game, his manager expressed confidence in his hurler despite that.

McClain and Kelley also pitched, McClain facing three Marlins, and Kelley facing a total of six. Neither of them allowed any runs.

The begging question is why Girardi didn’t use more experienced relievers in his first game as Phillies manager unless his thinking was simply that he would save the veterans for use if his team tied the Fish or went ahead in the game.

The following afternoon, roughly two and a half hours before game time, the Fightin’s announced the fourth of their unlikely six, Phil Gosselin, would be the starting DH. “Barrels,” as he’s been dubbed by teammates, then went out and hit two home runs and a single, drove in three runs, and went to the locker room after the game with a 1.000 batting average, 1.000 OBP, and 4.000 OPS.

So, unless he somehow falls into a deep slump in the next week, without playing every day, don’t expect Gosselin to be one of the first two cut.

The fifth of the Improbables, Deolis Guerra, pitched the ninth inning of the Phillies 7-1 win, striking out two and inducing an infield groundout.

Girardi seemed committed to seeing all his marginal players early, and seemed to be doing it responsibly – or maybe that’s just a winning score talking.