Phillies’ compromised bullpen to play a role in remaining games against Dodgers

PHILADELPHIA — Jose Ruiz may be a walking statistical oddity.

He recorded his first-ever save on the last day of the regular season in 2024. He had finished 96 games in his career. None of them were save opportunities. He was nine games away from tying the Major League record for most games finished without recording a save.

On Friday, he became the first Phillies pitcher since Jeremy Horst on Aug. 1, 2012 to record an out without facing a batter. Manager Rob Thomson inserted Ruiz into the game to face Mookie Betts with runners on the corner and two outs in the eighth inning. He threw three pitches, then went right back to the dugout and did not emerge again after catcher J.T. Realmuto threw out Shohei Ohtani to end the inning.

Thomson did not bring Ruiz back in because he warmed up in a previous inning. “That’s good for me,” Thomson said. “I don’t want to put him in too much danger early in the season.”

The Phillies manager has been very aggressive in his deployment of the bullpen early on. Decisions made in the Colorado series had an impact on Friday’s opener. They will continue to linger until the Phillies get an off day on Monday in Atlanta.

José Alvarado, arguably the Phillies’ best option, is likely to be down until Sunday’s series finale after pitching in all three games of the Colorado series. In the home opener, he appeared in a 6-1 game in the bottom of the eighth. Thomson wanted to get Alvarado some work with the off day the next day and his only other outing coming on Opening Day. Alvarado pitched again the next day in the ninth inning of a 5-1 game. The Phillies scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth to take away the save situation as Alvarado was warming up. He labored through a 35-pitch inning and recorded a save in his third outing in the last four days during the series finale on Thursday against Colorado.

Matt Strahm was always going to be a factor in Friday’s game if the score remained close. He entered the game in the top of the eighth with Michael Conforto, Miguel Rojas and Andy Pages due up. A single by Rojas guaranteed another Strahm vs. Ohtani showdown. The Phillies lefty matched up against Ohtani in three of his four outings against LA last season, retiring him in all three at-bats. This time, Ohtani was able to beat him on sharp single to right field to set up runners at the corners with two away.

If Strahm had retired the side 1-2-3, he was not going to come out for the top of the ninth for another at-bat against Ohtani. Strahm, who missed some time in spring training due to a shoulder issue, is pitching with his velocity at around 90-91 mph as opposed to the 93-94 mph we’re used to seeing out of him.

“I think he might be going through maybe a little bit of dead arm that you normally see in spring training, or towards the end of spring training,” Thomson said. “Through the training staff, everything has been fine. He is a pretty honest guy, and he tells us that he’s fine. We’ll keep putting him on a schedule that’s more like spring training.”

That means Strahm will likely not pitch on Saturday.

The ninth inning was once again an adventure for the Phillies. Jordan Romano, who is also operating with diminished velocity, hung a slider in the top half of the zone to Tommy Edman to cut the lead to 3-2. Before that, he allowed Mookie Betts to steal without a throw. Like many closers around baseball, Romano is notoriously slow to the plate. He worked on a slide step in spring training, and pulled it out at the right time for Realmuto to catch the pinch runner Chris Taylor stealing to end the game on a double play.

“It was kind of hit or miss today,” Romano said.

Thomson theorized that Romano may not have had enough time to properly warm up after the Phillies were retired on just four pitches in the bottom of the eighth. Romano believed that wasn’t an issue. He threw 22 pitches in the ninth and could be called upon again on Saturday.

So, the Phillies will enter Saturday’s game light on options in the bullpen. They will likely have Orion Kerkering. Thomson avoided using him on Friday night after warming him up multiple times during the last game of the Colorado series. Joe Ross briefly warmed up in the ninth as Romano struggled, but he should be available. Ruiz, after his strange cameo, should be good to go. Tanner Banks could be the next Phillies reliever to match up against Ohtani.

It’s all part of the delicate balance between banking the wins early and not putting the pitching staff in danger. Thomson has pushed his relievers early in the past. Jeff Hoffman and Alvarado each had a pair of stretches where they pitched three out of four days in March/April of 2024.

At times, the Phillies were so good last year that it was a struggle to manufacture high leverage opportunities for the bullpen. Who knows if this factored into why the bullpen struggled in last year’s postseason, but challenges early on could benefit the unit in the long run.

But for now, the Phillies will have to navigate at the back end with caution against the best team in baseball. A good start from Aaron Nola on Saturday and Cristopher Sánchez would help.

“Those leverage guys at the end hold a lot of weight here,” Thomson said. “We need to get them a little bit of rest. The other guys need to get involved a little bit.”