At least something good came of Friday's defensively challenged loss to the Mets. The Phils called up Bailey Falter to start the game to give the starters an extra day of rest. More on that later. To make room for Falter, the Phils optioned reliever Jose Alvarado to triple A.
It was a well-earned demotion. Alvarado has been horrific this year, posting a 7.62 ERA in 13 innings of work. In those 13 innings, he's given up 16 hits and 12 walks (2 intentional). He's been really bad for a really bad bullpen.
The Falter move backfired spectacularly. Sure the starters will get an extra day, but the relievers had plenty of extra work since Falter only lasted 3 innings and gave up 5 runs, 4 hits, and 2 walks. And it took him 81 pitches to do it. Oof. Nick Nelson was next and gave up 3 more runs.
It's time for Joe Girardi to end the Rhys Hoskins at leadoff fiasco and replace him with Jean Segura. Sure Hoskins got on base twice, but he also struck out 3 times. Segura's OPS is 53 points higher than Hoskins'. Or bring up Mickey Moniak, who's hitting .375 with a 1.054 OPS in six games as he comes back from a broken hand.
And speaking of fiascos, rookie shortstop Bryson Stott continues to struggle. His first-inning error led to 3 Mets runs and he was hitless again, dropping his average to comatose .114. He needs to go back to the minors to find his stroke and Johan Camargo needs to play short until Didi Gregorius is healthy. Or maybe Nick Mason can come back up from triple A and recapture some of the magic he had last year. I can't believe I'm actually anxious for Didi to return.
This team has too many guys struggling and has to play almost perfect baseball to win games. That hasn't been the case, as the Phils have lost 8 of 12 and are 8.5 games behind the first-place Mets. They've lost 7 of 10 to the Mets already this year. Make it stop.
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