Phillies take 2 out of 3 from the Marlins, but bullpen troubles continue to linger
Friday night was largely a cruise control game for the Phillies. Bryce Harper started off the scoring in the first with a two-run bomb, and in the second inning, the Phillies would strike big. Alec Bohm, who might finally be turning a corner, hit a single that drove in Max Kepler. That was then followed by a Johan Rojas RBI single that drove in JT and a Bryson Stott sacrifice fly that drove in Alec Bohm. All of this was off Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara, who capped off a disastrous inning with a wild pitch that Johan Rojas scored on.
Kyle Schwarber would add another Schwarbomb to the collection in the fifth to make it 7-0, and that was all the offense needed. The rest was the Zack Wheeler show. The Phillies’ ace had a great rebound start after a bad week and was dominant with a career high 13 strikeouts over 7 innings, with his only real blemish being a two-run home run he allowed to Eric Wagaman in the sixth. The Phillies reached base thirteen times as they netted seven runs, and then Tanner Banks and José Ruiz closed out the final two innings for a nice Friday night win.
Too Close Saturday
Saturday would be another route for about 90% of the game. In the bottom of the third, the offense would come alive. They would do it with a little bit of everything. Two walks, three hits, three stolen bases, and a sacrifice fly would see the Phils being up 4-0 by the time the third had ended. Taijuan Walker would again be solid, allowing one run over four innings. In the fourth inning, the Phillies would again add on as four more hits led to the Phillies taking a 7-1 lead. Matt Strahm would shut down the 5th, and the Phillies would add on two more in the bottom half and would head into the sixth with a 9-1 lead.
The game at that point should have been rudimentary, but the Phillies’ bullpen decided to show up. In the sixth, Carlos Hernádez would leak his way through the inning, getting through it, but allowing three runs in the process to make it 9-4. Joe Ross would come in during the seventh and eighth for clean innings, though, and the Phillies would add on a few more as they stretched the lead to 11-4. Runs, they probably thought they did not need. However, in the ninth, Jordan Romano would come in to close out the game, a seven-run lead with only three outs to get. Romano would leave the game with only two of those outs recorded and six runs allowed, 11-10. Romano’s velocity would be back up again, but it didn’t matter. He would allow six hits, two of which were home runs. José Alvarado closed the door and secured the win for the Phillies, but the fact that Alvarado had to come into this game at all, is a pretty damning example of the inefficiencies of this pen and Romano in particular.
Sunday Struggles
On Easter Sunday, Jesùs was phenomenal again, as Luzardo largely cruised to seven innings, allowing only two runs and striking out seven while only throwing 88 pitches. The Phillies would jump out hot in the first with a Bryce Harper two-run double to make it 2-0. Nick Castellanos would follow that up by driving him in as the Phillies would leave the first with a 3-1 lead. Rafael Marchàn would add on and make it 4-1 in the bottom of the fourth with an RBI single. When Luzardo walked off the mound in the seventh, the Phillies would hold a 4-2 lead and only need six outs. The largely reliable Orion Kerkering would step in during the eighth and struggle. He nearly got out of all of it, but with two outs and a 1-1 count, he would allow Javier Sanoja to hit his first career home run, a three-run bomb that gave the Marlins a 5-4 lead in the eighth.
The Phillies would rally, scrambling through some hard baseball to tie the game. Last summer’s single-game hero, Cal Stevenson, would leg out a poorly played grounder in the infield to let a run score and tie it 5-5. José Alavarado would shut the door in the ninth, and the Phillies looked primed to send the fans home happy with the top of the order up. Stott would pop out on a nice play by the left fielder, but after a Turner walk and Harper single, the Phillies had first and second with one out. They would get nothing out of it, even though all they needed was a base hit, as Schwarber and Castellanos would fly out to end the innings. So the Phillies would head to extra innings for only the second time this year. In the tenth, Matt Strahm would prove futile. Dane Myers would lay down a remarkable bunt that put men on the corners with only one out. Kyle Stowers would hit a sacrifice fly, and Javier Sanoja, powered by his first career dinger, would hit a single, and it was 7-5. The Phillies would put up a whimper in the bottom of the tenth and would lose the series finale.
We Can’t Have It All
It was a mixed emotions series for the Phillies this weekend against the Marlins. On one hand, it felt like they started to right the ship a bit. The offense added on, looked decent with runners in scoring position, and produced a lot of runs without having to hit home runs. The starting pitching was also great the entire weekend. However, this bullpen has been alarmingly bad and now has the second-worst bullpen ERA in the entire sport. It is an issue that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later, but there isn’t a clear answer.
They lead the league with six blown saves already this year. The Phillies tried to create a budget bullpen when they let Jeff Hoffman and Carlos Estévez walk this offseason. They did so by taking a flyer on Jordan Romano and trusting their staff to bring along Josė Ruiz, who had a solid second half of 2024. That has backfired severely as both Romano and Ruiz have appeared in nine games each, with Romano having a whopping 15.26 ERA and Ruiz having a somehow more respectable 6.14 ERA. On top of that, Carlos Hernȧdez and Joe Ross are not big-league pitchers. This has caused the Phillies to lean heavily on the few guys they trust, like José Alvarado and Matt Strahm, who are both on pace to appear in 50% of the Phillies’ games this year. A pace that will certainly burn them out before the end of the year.
Not to mention the slip-ups this weekend from Strahm and Orion Kerkering, but if they start to struggle, and God forbid if José Alvarado starts to falter, the pen will completely implode. At the moment it does feel like this pen is going to cripple this team all year unless massive changes are made. Hopefully, they can find the talent and lean on their coaching to figure it out. The pen and the Phillies as a whole will get to test themselves starting today as they head up to Queens to start a three-game series with the division-leading New York Mets for the first time since their NLDS matchup.
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