McCaffery: Bryce Harper knows improved Phillies rotation still needs a jump start

Jun 10, 2023

PHILADELPHIA — Wielder of power both with bat and voice, Bryce Harper looked at the Phillies, their standings situation, their potential and their plight Thursday, and then he went to work.

First, he laced a leadoff ninth-inning double to key a walk-off victory over the Detroit Tigers.

Then, he laced a blast toward the executive level.

"You can have four guys go out there and dominate," he said of the top of the Phillies’ pitching rotation. "But we still need that fifth, right? Hopefully we can get whoever that is or whatever that may be and kind of put a little less pressure on the bullpen."

Zack Wheeler had just been the fourth Phillies’ starter to last at least seven innings in a game in the week, a rarity for any club and a luxury the Phillies hadn't enjoyed since 2014. Two days earlier, Taijuan Walker permitted two hits in his seven innings. Monday, there was Aaron Nola allowing one hit over seven. Even Ranger Suarez went seven Sunday in a triumph over Washington.

Even if much of that pitching panache came against a Detroit team comfortable with batting Nick Maton cleanup, it was as close as there had been to an all-clear sign around Citizens Bank Park since the third round of the last postseason. And ever aware of when to charge to an open base, Harper all but set the agenda for Dave Dombrowski a little over seven weeks before the trade deadline. Because around here, Harper gets what he wants — especially when he essentially is flailing his arms and searching for a life preserver.

That the Phillies can have a $234,000,000 payroll and still be short a regular rotation arm is its own issue. But while it had been difficult to see coming in the early season, with Suarez recovering from an elbow injury and Walker looking like a wasted free-agent risk, an eerie haze around the ballpark has lifted. Finally, the Phillies are receiving what they need from their top four starters: A sturdy gang plank to whatever the manager can do when the fifth spot in the rotation looms.

"Well, I think they are attacking hitters," Rob Thomson said. "And I think their stuff is playing out right now. It's really good. It's just that time of year, I think."

Fascinating — no? — how when the pitching is going well it's considered pitching season, but when it's the bats that are going it's hitting season. But what does a baseball idiom's truth value matter, anyway, as long as it resonates throughout a clubhouse?

Since the Phillies are paying Wheeler, Walker, Nola and Suarez a combined $61 million this season to produce, the recent wisp of pitchers working beyond the sixth inning is anything but a bonus. But it hasn't just been a spike of good baseball fortune. No, the quartet has started to perform at an All-Star level at the point where the Phillies were moving dangerously close to the buyer/seller brain-teaser.

"It's time to get it going," Thomson said. "You’ve seen Nola's velocity go up. Ranger's velocity has gone up. That happens to guys. Some guys come out of spring training and they’re maxing out on their season's velocity. Some guys need to build. And I think there is kind of that element where one guy goes out and throws a great game and it's kind of a challenge to the next guy, and then a challenge to the next guy, and they just keep feeding off each other."

The occasional day off — even one of the rogue air-pollution variety — can help Thomson wiggle his way through certain stretches without needing to resort to a bullpen game. The Phillies will be in Arizona next week before they next come up a regular starter short. But maybe the big right-hander tossing a little batting practice Friday could help. The father of Kody Clemens is only 60 and his rec room is decorated with seven Cy Young Awards.

"No," Thomson said, laughing, after Roger Clemens worked up a little on-field sweat in Phillies red. "He did try a comeback once before."

So the Phillies will settle for one Clemens and continue to shop for another arm. As for Thomson, he will pretend not to look.

"I’m comfortable with where we are at," he said. "I really am. We are managing just fine. And I don't like to play general manager because I have own problems that I have to deal with. So that's where I’m at right now."

The Phillies are managing, but it hasn't all been fine, as they are still under .500 nearing the third week of June and need help. And even if they don't find a multi-time Cy Young winner before the Aug. 1 deadline, they will find a veteran pitcher to tighten up the back of what is becoming a deep rotation.

They’ll find one because Harper said so.

Contact Jack McCaffery at [email protected]

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