Bullpen stumbles in 5th straight loss to Marlins
MIAMI -- Headed into the seventh with a three-run lead and the Marlins struggling at the plate, it seemed as if the Phillies were in line for the win as they turned to their relievers for the final three innings.
That all changed when the bullpen gave up six runs in that seventh inning, as the Phillies ultimately fell to the Marlins, 9-6, on Saturday at Marlins Park. Adam Morgan and Juan Nicasio gave up a combined six runs on six hits, while seeing Miami’s entire lineup once through.
“We felt pretty good knowing we were going to use the combination of Nicasio and Mo,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “Nicasio came out and didn’t have his stuff immediately, took him awhile to ease into the outing. Looked like he was getting it back there with [Garrett] Cooper, then lost it again with [Brian] Anderson.
“We knew we wanted to turn Neil Walker around, he's been much better from the left side in his career, and also this year. So we wanted to turn him around. Then Mo, frankly, missed with a fastball to [Starlin] Castro, and then wasn't able to execute that slider to [JT] Riddle. Then that was it.”
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Nicaso put the Phillies in a bad spot by allowing one run and putting runners on the corners with one out. Morgan then took the mound, and gave up a pair of doubles -- first a game-tying RBI double on a fastball to Castro, then a go-ahead double on a slider to Riddle.
The two combined for only two outs, before turning it over to Ranger Suárez, who capitalized off Bryce Harper's diving catch to get the final out of the inning.
The Phillies needed a pitcher to go deep into a game and keep it close until they found more of a rhythm at the plate. Through the first five innings, starter Zach Eflin was able to do just that, holding the Marlins to only one run on five hits. The Phils, meanwhile, capitalized on a Marlins error, a handful of walks and a hit by pitch to score six runs on just five hits through five frames.
“Really, just using the pitches that were working -- sinkers to the righties and even sinkers to the lefties,” Eflin said. “Changeup when I needed to with a right-handed hitter. Got the curveball in there when I could.”
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Despite that, Neil Walker’s two-run homer in the sixth cut the lead to three, ultimately chasing Eflin after the inning and setting the table for the decisive seventh frame against the Phillies' bullpen.
“We all thought that he was done," Kapler said of the decision to lift Eflin. "It was actually a little bit earlier that we thought he was beginning to struggle a little bit. The last time against Neil Walker sort of gave us that indication. And then it would've been the fourth time through that lineup. Just didn't seem like the responsible thing to do to push him right there. He was battling and grinding and giving us everything he had. Zach was not at his best at that point.”
Eflin admitted to feeling off in his delivery, saying the ball wasn’t going where he wanted it to. He relied heavily on his fastball, throwing either the two-seam or four-seam for 50 of his 89 pitches.
The righty used his slider just 26 times on Saturday, despite using it 34.5 percent of the time entering Saturday, according to Statcast. When asked about his pitches, Eflin said his slider wasn't there, adding, “I was pretty disappointed with how my slider was today.”
“You’re not going to go out there every outing feeling great," Eflin said. "Today was one of those days."
Despite Eflin “not being at his best,” he still managed to turn in his 10th quality start of the season and turn things over to the bullpen with a three-run lead.
Entering Saturday’s game, the Phillies' bullpen ranked 11th in the Majors with a 4.61 ERA. However, the relief corps also has a WPA -- a stat that measures a player's or team's impact on the chance of winning a particular game -- of -0.97, which ranks 20th, highlighting their inconsistencies.
“All we can do is turn the page quickly, get ready to come out and battle again tomorrow,” Kapler said. “There's no time to look backward right now. We look forward. Make sure we’re doing the little things along the way, that our process is strong, that we practice well. We’re gonna be just fine -- [there's a] lot of confidence in the group in that room.”