Categories: News

Zach Eflin to Lehigh Valley; Howie Kendrick is back

After the Phillies lost 8-4 on Sunday, they optioned starter Zach Eflin to Lehigh Valley.

It hasn’t been a very good second time out for Eflin. He’s 0-3 with a 6.32 ERA in 47 major league innings this season.

Eflin is down because Howie Kendrick is back; after finishing his rehab assignment with the Pigs, the offseason acquisition will join the team tonight in Miami. He’s scheduled to start.

Of course, that means the Phillies are missing a fifth starter. They could do one of two things:

Go with a four-man rotation this week, since the Phils have an off day Thursday before they play the Giants.
Throw Mark Leiter Jr. or Luis Garcia in there to start Saturday against San Francisco.
Bring up Ben Lively (most likely) and send down Leiter or Garcia (most likely).

This is fun, right?

Tim Malcolm

Tim first found the Phillies as a little infant at Veteran’s Stadium, cheering on a Juan Samuel game-winning home run in his very first game. With the pinstripes in his blood, he witnessed Terry Mulholland’s 1990 no-hitter, “Steve Carlton Night” at the Vet, game three of the 1993 World Series, countless games during the charmed 2008 championship season and various road excursions. Since November 2007 Tim’s been writing about them daily at Phillies Nation, becoming one of the world’s most popular Phillies scribes. You can catch him on Twitter and Facebook, as well. When he’s not talking about the Phils he’s relaxing with a St. Bernardus ABT 12 or one of his many favored brews.