PHILADELPHIA — Joe Girardi’s once strong approval rating as the Phillies manager has been waning in recent weeks and it seemed to hit an all-time low Friday night even though his team pulled off a 4-3, 10-inning victory over a white-hot team from the West Coast.
Brad Miller allowed the Phillies to avert another heart-wrenching loss by blasting a pinch-hit RBI double just in front of the center-field wall off San Diego reliever Austin Adams to end the game after the bullpen blew another save in the top of the ninth.
With two outs in the top of the eighth inning, Girardi emerged from the home dugout at Citizens Bank Park and headed straight for home-plate umpire Chris Guccione.
He was making a double switch that included the removal of Zack Wheeler following another brilliant performance in a season filled with them by the veteran right-hander.
The crowd of 22,653 loudly and relentlessly booed Girardi even before he got to the mound and took the ball from Wheeler. These people, of course, know what a disaster the Phillies’ bullpen has been this season and by the end of the evening they saw more of the same.
The boos were replaced temporarily by a loud and long ovation for Wheeler as he headed for the Phillies’ dugout. They resumed, however, after Girardi handed the ball to lefty Jose Alvarado and returned to the dugout.
They intensified an inning later when Alvarado and fellow lefty Ranger Suarez combined to blow a 3-0 lead. The bulk of the blame belonged to Alvarado, whose title as team closer is already on thin ice even though he only he recently replaced Hector Neris in the role. Alvarado opened the ninth with a walk to Jake Cronenworth before allowing a one-out RBI double to Fernando Tatis Jr.
A second walk ended Alvarado’s outing. Like Girardi, he departed to a chorus of boos.
Suarez retired Eric Hosmer to get the Phillies’ within an out of a victory, but Jurickson Profar followed with a game-tying double down the third-base line and the ballpark anger level became palpable.
It was the Phillies’ eighth blown save in nine games and their major league-leading 22nd of the season.
The night started nicely enough for Girardi and the Phillies. For the first time since May 9, they had their full arsenal of lineup weapons, thanks to shortstop Didi Gregorius’ return from the injured list.
The hope is that the Phillies start scoring runs in bunches, which was what most people expected when the season started. They did score twice in the bottom of the first inning when Odubel Herrera and Jean Segura reached on consecutive singles and scored on 4-3 groundouts by J.T. Realmuto and Bryce Harper.
It was small ball rather than a power surge, but two runs in the first for Wheeler were surely welcome.
Gregorius also made an instant contribution in his return by slamming a 2-1 change-up into the right-field seats for a solo homer in the bottom of the fifth inning.
The best thing about the Phillies’ win over the Padres, however, was Wheeler. In his second season with the Phillies, he continued the best stretch of his career by blanking the Padres on four hits over 7 2/3 innings.
It marked the 10th time in 17 starts this season that Wheeler has gone at least seven innings and allowed three runs or fewer. Three starts ago, he pitched a season-low three innings in a rough outing and loss against the Washington Nationals.
He has rebounded with 15 2/3 straight scoreless innings since then, lowering his overall ERA to 2.05
The Phillies’ media relations department put together an interesting graphic ahead of Wheeler’s 17th start of the season. They compared his first 16 starts to Phillies starters who have been among the top three in the Cy Young Award voting since 2010.
The list started with Roy Halladay, who had a 2.29 ERA after 16 games on the way to winning the Cy Young Award. The following season, Halladay and Cliff Lee both finished in the top three in the voting. Halladay had a 2.51 ERA after 16 starts that year and Lee had a 2.87 ERA.
Three years ago on his way to finishing third in the voting, Aaron Nola had a 2.58 ERA after 16 starts.
In other words, Wheeler’s first half of this season is the best we’ve seen in more than decade. In the eighth inning Friday night, the crowd at Citizens Bank Park made it clear that they wanted to see even more and who could blame them even though it all turned out fine in the end.
