Phillies vs Blue Jays: Bullpen Recap
By Perry Lowe
The Philadelphia Phillies bullpen produced an uneven performance during the recent series with the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Phillies bullpen had its ups and downs in the just completed home-and-home series against the Toronto Blue Jays. After starting the series off with a 7-0 win, the Jays’ bats opened up and blitzed the Phils over the final three games.
After game one in Toronto, the second game onwards would feature weak starts by the Phillies rotation, leading to the bullpen having to try to hold things down.
That second game was held on Tuesday afternoon in Toronto, and featured lefty reliever Brett Oberholtzer coming in as the long man after rookie Zach Eflin had been bombed out of his big league debut.
Oberholtzer came into the game with the Phillies trailing already by nine runs. Oberholtzer held the Jays scoreless over 3.1 innings pitched, allowing just three hits over the extended relief. He struck out two while walking one.
Oberholtzer’s Tuesday outing would prove one of the better relief efforts by the Phillies in this series. It was particularly important because effective performances from the long relief role is something the team has been lacking lately.
Colton Murray followed Oberholtzer in the 7th inning, tasked with holding the Blue Jays scoreless in a hope that the Phillies could climb back into the game.
Murray did not have his best outing, giving up two earned runs on one hit and one walk. Following a walk, Edwin Encarnacion sent the ball out of the yard for a two run shot. Murray would finish the inning with relative ease but the damage had already been done.
Murray pitched again in Philadelphia on Wednesday, this time having a much easier time with the Blue Jays. He pitched one inning and gave up a single hit.
This would get him back on the right track for his final relief effort in the series when he would go into a two inning effort on Thursday, the final game of the series.
Murray pitched two innings, striking out one and giving up two hits in that finale. Murray had the one minor Tuesday blemish on an otherwise strong series where he pitched four quality innings while only giving up two runs.
David Hernandez had an uneven series, going cold in the final game on Thursday after holding the Blue Jays scoreless over one inning during Monday’s 7-0 win.
In one inning on Thursday, Hernandez gave up four runs on five hits. After putting two magnificent relief efforts together against Washington on Sunday and Toronto on Monday, Hernandez had one of his worst outings of the season.
Hector Neris had arguably the worst series of any member of the Phillies bullpen, continuing his recent struggles. Neris pitched one inning in Toronto on Monday, giving up one hit and one walk while striking out one.
Neris was then roughed up in Philadelphia on Wednesday, failing to finish a full inning while allowing three runs in the shortened outing. He lasted just 2/3 of an inning, which started off extremely poorly.
Neris gave up a leadoff home run to Josh Donaldson putting the Phillies in even more of a hole. He then walked Edwin Encarnacion and hit Russell Martin with a pitch putting runners on first and second.
Kevin Pillar would then fly out to center field giving Neris a much-needed out. A ground ball back to Neris would give him his second out but Encarnacion would score from third after advancing on the flyball. Devon Travis would then step into the box and hit a single back up the middle, scoring Martin.
Neris was then relieved by Elvis Araujo, who would come out of the bullpen to close out the inning. Araujo worked out of that jam in the 8th, and would finish the Blue Jays off in the 9th. Araujo would strike out two while giving up one hit in his 1.1 innings.
Araujo first pitched on Tuesday, a game in which he allowed just one hit while striking out one over one inning.a.
Andrew Bailey had a decent outing in the win on Monday, pitching one shutout inning while giving up only one hit. Bailey would then surrender one run on two hits over two innings in Thursday’s 13-2 loss. He did, however, have an impressive five strikeouts in the loss.
Jeanmar Gomez would be the final Phillies reliever featured in the Toronto series. Gomez would pitch one inning while giving up no runs and no hits.
Gomez has been arguably the best reliever for the Phillies this season, unexpectedly taking over the closer role, at least in the short-term. He was rebounding after last Sunday’s difficult effort against Washington in which he failed to finish an inning.
As a whole the Phillies bullpen had an average series at best against the Blue Jays, but were generally put in large holes by the starters.
The cumulative Phillies bullpen stats vs Toronto: 17.1 innings pitched, 10 earned runs, 18 hits, 15 strikeouts, and three walks.
Those stats as a whole are below average, but considering the Blue Jays are one of the better hitting teams, and the damage done to the starting rotation, this effort by the bullpen can in some ways be considered a positive.