GDT 6/10/18 Milwaukee Brewers (Woodruff) @ Philadelphia Phillies (Eflin)

[HopeSpringsEternal]

Somehow Phillies win - offense still anemic; pitching was good enough to win most games, though the ninth inning is still quite an adventure.

[allentown]

The unearned runs gave us the win.

[donaldorc]

Eflin with 9 Ks in six innings. Pretty impressive.

[EastFallowfield]

Had 'em all the way, Harry!

[tom81]

Anyone else surprised to see Dominguez called in to pitch the 7th with the bottom of the order hitting? I thought he would have had him come in fresh in the 8th to face the top/middle of the order and then continue to the 9th if he looked like he had enough left.

[flyers19rw]

Nola, Arrieta, Eflin, Pivetta and VV isn't the best rotation in the game but it's the best that we've seen around here for several seasons. Slowly a good base for the pitching staff is coalescing. Thanks Kranitz.

[LoneStarPhan]

I have given up trying to understand lineups and bullpen use.

Dominguez gives up 3 hits in the 8th, the same number of hits he gave up in his previous 17 innings. Two of the hits were ground balls that got through and the third was a bloop fly into center.

Phillies only get 4 hits on the day so getting 4 runs was productive use of the hits. Good to see them scratch out a win when the offense is not overpowering.

Pitching continues to be a strength. Eflin gives them a good six inning start and the bullpen, while not perfect, held on to the lead for the win. Credit to Hunter for coming in and getting the last out. Crawford went 2 for 4 with a double. Hernandez was 1 for 3 but his bases loaded walk got a run home. Hoskins had 2 RBIs and Herrera one, without getting any hits today. They found a way to get runners home.

Record now 33-30. The Brewers are a good team this season (39-26). Next up after the off day tomorrow, 3 at home with the Rockies and then on the road for 3 in Milwaukee next weekend. I hope to see them be able to win both series.

[zambonir]

Nola, Arrieta, Eflin, Pivetta and VV isn't the best rotation in the game but it's the best that we've seen around here for several seasons. Slowly a good base for the pitching staff is coalescing. Thanks Kranitz.

Of course Kranitz was here the past two seasons as well. He's probably not that different from the last guy, he just has one guy who wasn't' here and three guys who are healthy or further along than they were in '16 and '17.

[EDmuch]

So Eflin is now our stopper ?????

[Austinfan]

I think Kapler wants to "baby" SD for now, he's very inexperienced and the object is just to get him comfortable pitching in the Show. So you gradually increase the intensity of his appearances, but don't make him the closer (with the pressure that comes with that role) for a few months. It's obvious he has the stuff to be an elite closer at some point. 98 MPH cutters are unusual, 4 seamer, slider.

I won't be surprised if Velasquez ends up the odd man out if they decide De Los Santos is ready, Velasquez lacks the strength of PIvetta and Eflin (big strong guys who seem almost effortless as they hit 95), so he might thrive in a bullpen role where he can just bring it for a couple innings much like SD. By next season, it's going to get crowded in the Lehigh and Reading rotations.

[andyb]

Having Seranthony pitch 2 high leverage innings constantly is not exactly babying him. It is using him heavily, to the point where meaningless 1-inning outings should not be done. We are actually dancing on the edge of abusing a young arm that has rarely been healthy. It is the right thing to do. He is our best reliever. But getting 2 innings and 40 pitches out of him is pretty dangerous.

He has appeared in 14 of the 30 games since he has been up. First 5 appearances were 1 inning or less. 7 of the last 9 have been more than 1 inning. This is a 70+ game, 100 inning pace. He won't get quite there because he was more lightly used in the minors, but it a really hard pace to keep up.

[Philsmania]

Having Seranthony pitch 2 high leverage innings constantly is not exactly babying him. It is using him heavily, to the point where meaningless 1-inning outings should not be done. We are actually dancing on the edge of abusing a young arm that has rarely been healthy. It is the right thing to do. He is our best reliever. But getting 2 innings and 40 pitches out of him is pretty dangerous.

He has appeared in 14 of the 30 games since he has been up. First 5 appearances were 1 inning or less. 7 of the last 9 have been more than 1 inning. This is a 70+ game, 100 inning pace. He won't get quite there because he was more lightly used in the minors, but it a really hard pace to keep up.

I was wondering yesterday if soon they'll soon come up with a stat called HLQO short for "high-leverage quality outing." What would such a stat encompass?

[julio]

I was wondering yesterday if soon they'll soon come up with a stat called HLQO short for "high-leverage quality outing." What would such a stat encompass?

It would encompass "abuse of data." That's pretty much all you need.

[zambonir]

Yeah using SD yesterday struck me as similarly desperate to the last time they used him, despite the inning and where the order was, they needed the win too badly to trust anyone else there, and they knew they were going to leave him in. I think his role is pretty clear, there's no closer, sometime he'll pitch the 9th, sometimes he won't, and they like his ability to pitch multiple innings. But as we know from the first day of the season Gabe sometimes still has a tendency to manage like it's already the playoffs. He'll have to manage SD's workload and the pen overall seems a little shaky coming off this stretch. If Morgan is really less effective and Neris can't get his stuff back on track everybody looks a little worse, 'cause Hunter hasn't been good and Garcia was probably due to regress.

[julio]

Yeah using SD yesterday struck me as similarly desperate to the last time they used him, despite the inning and where the order was, they needed the win too badly to trust anyone else there, and they knew they were going to leave him in.

..."SD"? San Diego?

Oh, wait. Seranthony Dominguez. I suppose it's inevitable.

[allentown]

"SD"? San Diego?

Oh, wait. Seranthony Dominguez. I suppose it's inevitable.

Seranthony is such a great name that I'd just stick with it.

[zambonir]

That's fair, though I generally don't even like to call players by their first names (or nicknames). I'm sure I'm not consistent about it though.

[andyb]

If Morgan is really less effective and Neris can't get his stuff back on track everybody looks a little worse, 'cause Hunter hasn't been good and Garcia was probably due to regress.

We kind of knew that these guys all had flaws. Morgan has never had great command with his new-found velocity over long stretches. Hunter's stuff moves all over the place, but his command has also been lacking. Garcia has velocity but not too much movement. Yesterday he threw a couple of hangers that really could have been hit out of the park.

Getting Neshek will help some, but the reality is we have good depth in the bullpen with one really good arm in Seranthony. Everyone else is kind of complementary. Depth is good. Quality late inning arms are lacking at the moment unfortunately. Hopefully we limit Dominguez to about 4 innings per week. Any more and we are likely to have problems.

[Austinfan]

Arano and Ramos have pitched well, but again, inexperience.
Hunter is the big disappointment.
Garcia is the most frustrating, has closer stuff but the whole is less than the sum of the parts.
Neris comes down to not trusting his splitter, and his other stuff is middle relief quality.

[andyb]

Arano and Ramos have pitched well, but again, inexperience.

Not with the sample size or stuff to think they can handle late inning, high leverage roles and do well.

Hunter has been unlucky more than anything else. His stuff is second to Seranthony among our bullpen candidates.

Neris trusts his splitter. It just is not going to work as well when you throw it all the time. He needs to also throw it for more strikes since his fastball is not good enough to live in the zone.