Five things we learned from the Phillies-Cardinals series

The Phillies split their four-game series with the Cardinals over the weekend. Here are five things we learned now that it is over.

The Phillies began their month-and-a-half stretch of facing almost all winning teams with a four-game series against the Cardinals. Each team won two games, with Philadelphia winning the first and third games and St. Louis winning the second and fourth.

With the Braves winning Sunday with a six-run ninth inning, the Phillies now sit a game and a half back in the National League East heading into their three-game series. They can take the lead in the division if they win the series. First, let’s take a look back at five things from the Cardinals series.

Phillies can’t escape the rain

The Phillies are seemingly a rain magnet. When they were home against the Mets, they had a game rained out as well as another delayed an hour. Rain completely altered their series in Baltimore as one game was canceled and another had to be moved up to noon in order to keep it from being rained out.

Rain remained a factor once the Phils traveled to St. Louis. Friday night’s game was delayed an hour and 35 minutes before starting. Rained still continued during the game as the team made three errors. The game did not end until 12:16 a.m. in St. Louis, and then they had to play another Saturday at 1:15.

Although Saturday’s game started on time, there was another rain delay during the fifth inning. Gabe Kapler took exception to it as the rain had not started when the umpires called the game. He argued that they should try to finish the game with starter Zach Eflin still in the game and just one out away from making the game official. However, the umpires were ultimately in the right as the skies opened soon after for more heavy rain.

Thankfully, there should be some respite from the rain in this week’s series against the Braves as the only rain in the forecast for Philadelphia the next few days will be Tuesday morning.

Seranthony Dominguez is the real deal

Seranthony Dominguez was the Phillies first big in-season call-up this year. He is ranked as the team’s 10th-best prospect according to MLB.com. He transitioned from a starter to a reliever this year, rocketing his way up from Double-A to the major-leagues. After being in the majors for a few weeks, he is proving he has plenty of potential.

Dominguez has been one of the team’s most useful pitchers since being called up. In Thursday night’s action with the Cardinals, Dominguez was called on in the seventh after Vince Velasquez allowed runners to reach second and third with one out. Dominguez induced a fielder’s choice at home plate, then got a fly out to center field to keep the game at 1-0.

Saturday night Dominguez was called on again after the Phillies took a 7-6 lead in the eighth inning. He then pitched two perfect innings, striking out two as he recorded his first major-league save. His experience as a starter proved useful as manager Gabe Kapler felt confident letting him pitch multiple innings.

After the game, Kapler told reporters that he feels Dominguez is a truly great player: [quote via Matt Breen of Philly.com]

“He’s a strike thrower and that’s a really good profile for a reliever who throws 97 to 99,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “ ‘I throw 97 to 99, plus I throw strikes, plus I can land my secondary pitch for a strike and, by the way, that’s kind of nasty too. Oh, and my fastball has cut and sometimes sink.’ Those are all characteristics that make us feel that Seranthony is special.”

Dominguez has still not allowed a hit or walk since reaching the majors. He now has seven strikeouts in 6.2 major-league innings. So far, he has shown that he can be an effective reliever, and Kapler should use him as such.

Drew Hutchison finally falters

The first of Philadelphia’s two losses in the series was an ugly one. The Cardinals won handily with a score of 12-4. Pedro Florimon made his second outing of the year in mop-up relief.

The deluge started when Jake Arrieta gave up four runs to the Cardinals in the third inning. The first two were earned, but the second two were unearned as Scott Kingery made a throwing error at third base. His error allowed the inning to continue and ultimately led to two more runs on a Jedd Gyorko single.

With Arrieta at 64 pitches through three innings, Drew Hutchison came in to replace him in the fourth. Up until then, Hutchison had been quite effective in a long relief role. In his first nine outings, he had a 2.76 ERA and 1.29 WHIP. He did have a high walk rate of 11.9 percent, but he had only allowed more than one run one time.

Things were much different for Hutchison against the Cardinals. He gave up a run in the fourth and fifth innings, then allowed three in the sixth on an RBI single and two-run home run. Altogether, Hutchison surrendered six hits, three walks, and two home runs. He did not record a single strikeout.

After his poor outing, Hutchison now has a 4.66 ERA, 6.04 fielding-independent pitching, 1.55 WHIP, and 1.45 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He remains in the bullpen for now, but if he continues to struggle, Mark Leiter, Jr. may wind up replacing him.

Aaron Nola is human

The Phillies sent out their best starter so far this year, Aaron Nola, to the mound Sunday hoping to secure the series win. Given his impressive start to the season, there was plenty of reason for confidence.

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Unfortunately, Nola showed that he is still human. He gave up four runs to the Cardinals, the most since Sep. 2 last season against the Marlins. Up until Sunday, he had allowed more than two runs just once. Nola finished the game with seven hits, four runs, one home run, and one walk allowed. He struck out six batters over six innings as well.

Given that Philadelphia’s offense completely shut down Sunday, Nola ultimately took the loss.

After this start, he now has a 2.37 ERA, 2.88 fielding-independent pitching, and 4.07 strikeout-to-walk ratio this season. Even after a poor outing Sunday, Nola’s overall numbers for the year are still great. We couldn’t have expected him to be tremendous every outing.