PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Phillies bullpen this season was supposed to be better than the historically awful one last year. In fairness, it's arguable that it did improve, but showing progress from one of the worst ever is not necessarily good.
The 2021 Philadelphia Phillies bullpen, through 76 games, is approaching an unflattering distinction.
With the Phils giving up their 4-2, seventh-inning lead in their make-up game at the Cincinnati Reds on Monday night, they now have 21 blown saves on the season, which is four away from their franchise record of 25 set in 2004. According to MLB.com's Todd Zolecki, the Colorado Rockies blew 34 that year.
Their latest blown save was courtesy of 33-year-old veteran Neftalí Feliz, who was making his Phillies debut after recently getting called up from Triple-A Lehigh Valley. It was Feliz's first big league appearance since August 13, 2017.
Joe Girardi, despite indicating that Héctor Neris and Connor Brogdon were available, decided to put Feliz into a two-run game in the Bottom of the seventh. He eventually gave up a grand slam to Nick Castellanos, which was the first domino to fall in what would become 10 Reds runs combined in the seventh and eighth innings.
It was the seventh blown save in the Phils' last six games.
Luckily for Girardi's Phils, they're in an underwhelming National League East, so there is still meaningful baseball to play with a little more than half a season to go. But if they're going to jump Atlanta, Washington and eventually catch the first-place Mets, their bullpen must get better — and that includes the decisions made by the manager.