PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Despite beating the Milwaukee Brewers 6-5 on Tuesday, Phillies manager Joe Girardi might like to forget much of that night at Citizens Bank Park.
In the top of the seventh inning, with a 6-1 lead over Milwaukee, Girardi decided Enyel De Los Santos would be the first pitcher out of the bullpen, only hours after the Phils had called the righty up.
Putting in De Los Santos for Aaron Nola, who was at 114 pitches after six innings, made sense, especially with a five-run lead. What didn't make sense: Cristopher Sánchez, not De Los Santos, was on the umpires' official lineup card. Sánchez is the player the Phils sent down to bring De Los Santos up.
De Los Santos was ruled ineligible to pitch.
Yikes.
After the game, Girardi said he missed the mistake before and after the lineup was submitting to Major League Baseball. He said the team's lineup cards were correct, but the one sent to the league wasn't.
"Ultimately it falls on me, because I didn't catch it," he said. "But then they reproduce and send the cards to us, and then we print them out, and didn't notice that De Los Santos wasn't on there."
"I'm livid at myself," Girardi said. "It's just stupid on my part."
Brewers manager Craig Counsell said Milwaukee had the lineup card with De Los Santos on it. In the end, this was all about the official card used by the home plate umpire. The Brewers, as a matter of fact, were recently guilty of a similar mistake.
"Seems like there's a better system that could probably be in place," Counsell said.
The larger issue at play is that the Phillies bullpen is already compromised because of injuries, José Alvarado's suspension, and how Girardi has used other relief pitchers.
Reliever David Hale had to suddenly warm up from scratch when De Los Santos went to the clubhouse. Hale gave up three runs without recording an out. Eventually, Sam Coonrod had to pull off a five-out save, just like regular closer Héctor Neris the night before.
"We just have to pick up our coaching staff whenever that happens," Coonrod said. "It wasn't a big deal."
Fortunately for the Phillies, it didn't end up costing them. Coonrod came through, and they had that comfortable lead thanks to a three-run titantic home run from Brad Miller and two long balls from Andrew McCutchen
Asked how tough it would have been if the Phils had completely flushed their lead because of the lineup snafu, McCutchen said, "There’s a lot of should’ve, would’ve, could’ves in this game, and it didn’t happen. So I don’t think about it."
It's safe to say Girardi will remember what could have happened.