Monday morning quarterbacking Rob Thomson’s bullpen decision
Is the Phillies manager utilizing his relievers in ideal fashion?
Entering the NLDS, most people figured the biggest advantage the Phillies had over the Mets was their bullpen. Based on their performance in the regular season, the Phillies seemed to have multiple arms that could be called upon in key late-inning situations, and they would be capable of protecting leads.
That has not been the case through the first two games of the series. It doesn’t feel like an exaggeration to say that the bullpen has been an outright disaster thus far.
Whenever a relief pitcher fails, there will be critics on social media who reflexively declare that the manager made the wrong move. But has that been the case in this series? Have the Phillies’ relief failures been partly due to how manager Rob Thomson is deploying them? Let’s take a closer look.
Game One – Eighth inning
With the Phillies holding a one run lead, Thomson called upon Jeff Hoffman in the eighth. While there were a handful of people who thought that Zack Wheeler should have been asked to continue even though he had thrown over 100 high stress pitches, there is a zero percent chance of that ever happening.
Aside from the people who still think its 1999 and pitchers should throw 130 pitches, I think everyone agreed that Hoffman was the right move here. He’s been used in this spot all season long and thrived. Unfortunately, despite getting ahead of every hitter, he simply couldn’t put them away, allowing three straight batters to reach base.
After Hoffman’s failure, Thomson called upon lefty Matt Strahm. Like with Hoffman, this is a situation that Strahm has been used in – and excelled – all season long. Unfortunately, like Hoffman, he couldn’t put hitters away and allowed two singles and a sacrifice fly.
The next pitcher was Orion Kerkering, who was very good the second half of the season and has often been asked to work out of jams. He didn’t do so without the Mets getting a couple more runs, but like with Hoffman and Strahm, using him seemed like the right move.
Game One – Ninth inning
With the Phillies trailing by three, and the offense showing no signs of making a comeback, Thomson used veteran lefty Tanner Banks. I’m fine with using a lesser-leverage arm in that spot, instead of someone like Carlos Estevez or Jose Alvarado who might be needed in an important spot in game two. Banks allowed another run, but it didn’t end up mattering.
Game Two – Sixth inning
With the Phillies trailing 2-0, Thomson chose to pull starter Cristopher Sanchez after five innings and 88 pitches. Sanchez hadn’t really labored the previous inning, so I felt he could have gone another inning, but it wasn’t egregious to remove him from the game. However, I will quibble with the usage of Jose Ruiz.
While the sixth inning isn’t generally thought of as being high leverage, the way the Phillies’ offense was struggling, it felt they couldn’t afford to give up any more runs. I would have gone with either Kerkering who has often been used in a mid-inning “fireman” role or Jose Alvarado who is more volatile but has generally been good since his return from a leave of absence.
Instead, Thomson called on Ruiz. He has had a fine enough season, but he generally wasn’t used in high leverage situations. And he allowed another run which at the time felt like a death knell.
