There's all kinds of blame for this, but I think manager Joe Girardi deserves most of it. Aaron Nola pitched eight stress-free innings and threw just 89 pitches while dominating the Braves. Nola reportedly wanted to back out for the ninth, but Girardi decided to take him out to keep him healthy. Which I get. But it was only 89 pitches. He was cruising.
Nick Pivetta started the ninth inning and was truly, truly awful, even for Nick Pivetta. He started off by giving up a homer to Johan Camargo and then gave up back-to-back singles before Charlie Culbertson doubled to score a run. Pivetta somehow managed to get an out when Marcell Ozuna hit a sacrifice fly, but that scored a run. Pivetta gave up two more doubles and then mercifully got the hook. He gave up six runs, and his ERA is now 15.88.
Trevor Kelley was next, and he wasn't much better. He struck out the first guy he faced, then threw a wild pitch before giving up a two-run homer. He got a groundout to end the day. Kelley's ERA is now 10.80.
How bad is the bullpen? Jayson Stark sums it up nicely in a tweet from this morning:
The bullpen was so heinous it almost took away from the offensive fireworks. Bryce Harper, Roman Quinn, Didi Gregorius (grand slam), Jean Segura, and JT Realmuto all homered for the Phils, who led 10-1 after two innings. Eight of the nine starters got hits, and the Phillies ended the night with 14. The offense and starting pitching were fantastic. The bullpen, again, was straight-up garbage. And that has to change.
My feelings about Pivetta are well-known. I hold him in almost as high regard as I do Vince Velasquez. And Kelley has no business being on a major league roster. It's time to ship the dead weight off to Allentown and see if there's anybody up there who can get people out for the Phillies. Because the guys who are here certainly can't.
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