PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — It's amazing what having a reliable bullpen can do for a major league baseball team.
In 2020, the Phillies pen was one of the worst in the history of baseball — and very arguably the main reason they missed breaking their postseason drought by one game. After new President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski and the Phils front office revamped the bullpen in the offseason, the 2021 version appears to be much better, as displayed in the season opening homestead.
"It's been fun to watch," manager Joe Girardi said after the Phillies 8-2 rubber match victory over the New York Mets Wednesday — which included five innings of one run, five hit and one walk ball by four relievers on a day ace Aaron Nola wasn't his sharpest.
For the first time since 2011 — the last time this club made the playoffs (ahem ahem) — the Phillies won the first two series of their season.
In those six games, relief pitchers have combined to pitch 22 innings, while allowing eight earned runs — an ERA of 3.27. But, four of those runs were charged to Vince Velasquez and two of them David Hale, the two long relievers in the Phillies bullpen, in their one loss of the season. Removing those two from the equation, the Phils bullpen has allowed two runs in 18 2/3 innings, which is an earned run average under 1.00.
Connor Brogdon, 26, who is one of the few holdovers from last season's nightly headache is 3-0 with only three hits allowed over 3 2/3. He's been fortunate enough to pick up the victory in every game he's appeared in so far.
Girardi said Wednesday postgame that having a really good bullpen creates excitement in a clubhouse.
"The toughest games to lose are the games that are late. They, a lot of times, feel like more than one loss, in sense," Girardi said.
In addition to Brogdon, other relievers who have found varying degrees of early success are Héctor Neris, José Alvarado, Sam Coonrod, Archie Bradley and Brandon Kintzler.
Alvarado has even reached triple-digit velocity on some of his pitches, which is one of the coolest things to see from a pitcher — starter or reliever.
Nola said it's been fun to watch the pen pitch. Catcher J.T. Realmuto said on NBC Sports Philadelphia after Wednesday's victory, "It's just reassuring as a team to know that as long as we stay close, we're gonna have a chance."
Most relief pitchers aren't going to be the players whose jerseys fans rush to buy, but a trustworthy bullpen goes a long way in making the postseason, then going on a deep run.
