Knowing that there was an off day in the schedule on Thursday and reinforcements could start arriving when rosters expand on Saturday, Phillies manager Gabe Kapler went through relievers like a champion Wing Bowl contestant plowing through a pile of chicken wings on Wednesday night.
"We did make a couple of jokes early on," Tommy Hunter said with a laugh. "And then there were five ... And then there were four …"
Forced to go to the bullpen early after Jake Arrieta lasted just three innings, Kapler used all but one of his eight relievers in an important 8-6 win over the Washington Nationals at Citizens Bank Park (see first take).
"It was just kind of read and react and see who the best bullet was at various points during the game," Kapler said of his busy bullpen usage.
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Hunter proved to be the magic bullet. Twenty-four hours after walking what turned out to be the tying run in the top of the ninth inning in Tuesday night's difficult 5-4 loss to the Nationals, Hunter got six huge outs in nailing down the win.
He got three outs - all with two men on base - in protecting a one-run lead in the eighth inning, then got three more with a two-run lead in the ninth. A triple by exciting Roman Quinn - who had three hits out of the leadoff hole - and a double by Rhys Hoskins got Hunter that extra run. Shortstop Scott Kingery made a nice, diving play behind Hunter for the second out in the ninth inning. For a change, the Phillies played sound defense, save for one passed ball.
"It takes a lot of things to win a ballgame like that," Hunter said. "The defense tonight was pretty on point, and that's a much-needed thing. We tacked on runs. We threw the ball, we caught the ball, we hit the ball, and we scored more than the other team."
Pretty simple.
But it hadn't been all that simple lately for the Phillies. They'd made a rash of errors over the previous week and blown a handful of leads in racking up several painful losses in falling 4½ games behind first-place Atlanta in the NL East.
The Braves lost to the Rays on Wednesday night so the Phils, who have won just three of their last 11 games, enter Thursday's off day 3½ games out in the division with 29 games to play.
There are plenty of doubters out there and Phillies players know it. But they have a chance if they can clean up the defensive mistakes that have plagued them recently and get more of the timely hitting they got on Wednesday night when Carlos Santana clubbed a grand slam and newcomer Jose Bautista lined a tie-breaking RBI single to center with two outs in the seventh.
"We're trying to win every game," Arrieta said. "That doesn't mean we're going to. But to count us out already just because this team has lost 100 games the past several years - like that's ridiculous. We've got plenty of time."
Arrieta has to pitch better than he did in this one if the Phils are going to have a chance. He knows that. His command was off. He threw 75 pitches and got just one swing and miss. He stroked a two-run single to give the Phils a lead in the second then allowed a triple, a walk and two two-run homers in the third inning to relinquish the lead.
"Incredible job by our bullpen and Santana's grand slam was huge," Arrieta said. "That's a win we needed, we really did. Everybody contributed except me.
"The effort I gave tonight wasn't acceptable. I expect a lot more, and so do my teammates, from my starts. That's frustrating. But winning that game is a relief."
Kapler managed the bullpen as if it was a must-win, which it really was. They all are at this point. He called the work of the bullpen "heroic." It picked up six innings and allowed just two runs, one of which was unearned.
"We asked a lot of our bullpen today and they stepped up in a major way," Kapler said.
He went to the bullpen often looking for a hot hand. Would he have been so aggressive with his bullpen use if Thursday wasn't an off day?
"Nope," Kapler said. "We recognized that we had an off day coming up. And beyond that, September 1 is right around the corner and we're going to have reinforcements and we'd be able to recover and then be in a good spot again."
