Pandemic season or not, it’s time for the Phillies to take off Spencer Howard’s training wheels | Extra Innings

“I absolutely think we have enough starting pitching and bullpen pitching to compete.”

Matt Klentak spoke those words on Feb. 13. They were, in fact, the first words he said in his first spring-training news conference this year. Asked if the Phillies had done enough to improve a pitching staff that wasn’t good enough in 2018 and 2019, Klentak all but declared victory.

Think he’s haunted by those words today?

After getting burned in the previous two offseasons by multiyear contracts for free-agent relievers Pat Neshek, Tommy Hunter and David Robertson, the Phillies took a scattershot approach to bullpen-building, leaving pitching coach Bryan Price to say last month that the club was “trying to catch lightning in a bottle.”

That sounded precarious then. Twenty-one games into the season, it has been ruinous, one crushing loss at a time and two on Wednesday, when the Phillies coughed up 2-0 and 7-0 leads in doubleheader-sweeping 3-2 and 9-8 losses to the Blue Jays in Buffalo.

“Today’s a tough day,” manager Joe Girardi said with the Phillies’ bullpen ERA standing at 8.07. “There’s no doubt about it.”

It doesn’t get any easier. With 35% of the season gone, the Phillies are 9-12 and face the Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals in the next 13 games.

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— Scott Lauber (extrainnings@inquirer.com)

In a nine-inning game, in a 162-game season, Girardi might have allowed Spencer Howard to work through the jam that he created in the fourth inning Thursday.

Alas, those aren’t the conditions of Howard’s rookie season.

In 2020, doubleheaders are made up of two seven-inning games. The season is only 60 games long. There’s more urgency than ever to prevent games from getting away, stop losses from mounting, and take advantage of even the slightest potential advantage.

So, after the Phillies lifted Howard with two out and the go-ahead run on third base in the fourth inning of the opener of a doubleheader against the Blue Jays, Price was almost apologetic for the quick hook.

“Bryan just said, ‘You’re going to pitch yourself out of those situations later in your career. Just stick with it,‘ ” Howard said. “It’s different, but hey, it happens. So it is what it is, basically.”

It shouldn’t be that way. The Phillies have the worst bullpen in baseball, and in this uniquest of years, there’s no telling whether Klentak will be able to improve it by pulling off a trade before the Aug. 31 deadline.

Further, Howard is the Phillies’ top pitching prospect, a 24-year-old right-hander with a mid-90s fastball, a bat-slowing change-up, an emerging slider and vast potential. At some point, he will need to learn to pitch through a two-on, one-out spot early in a game.

If this season is going to slip away, let it be because the Phillies did things like leaving the ball in Howard’s hands and letting him sink or swim.

Otherwise, Thursday represented what Howard characterized as “a step in the right direction.”

After giving up four homers in his first two starts and exiting early from his previous start with a blister on his right middle finger, Howard had more life on his fastball (95.1-m.p.h. average velocity, 97-m.p.h. peak) and got 10 swings and misses, eight on his heater.

“Still that’s not the best I’ve been, but I made a few minor tweaks within the past couple of days,” Howard said. “I’m starting to feel a little bit better on the mound. I do think that was a step in the right direction.

“As far as going deeper, you know, I trust Joe and whatever he feels is best for the game.”

What’s best for the Phillies is to turn Howard loose.

It took 135 years for the Phillies to play in Buffalo again. After what happened Thursday, who would blame them for not wanting to go back for another 135? It was ugly, as Matt Breen writes.

Go ahead and blame the bullpen for Thursday’s misery, but that would be overly simplistic, as Roman Quinn, Scott Kingery and Didi Gregorius made ill-timed errors and the offense vanished for long stretches. “This despicable display of baseball was a team effort,” Bob Brookover writes.

Adding injury to insult, lefty reliever Jose Alvarez got carted off the field after taking a 105-m.p.h. line drive to the groin. Somehow, Alvarez expects to miss only a few games.

A New York Mets player and one staff member tested positive for COVID-19, prompting the postponement of at least two games.

Curt Schilling is listed on the advisory board for the “We Built The Wall” fundraising effort that former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and three associates are accused of defrauding.

Tonight: Aaron Nola vs. Max Fried in series opener in Atlanta, 7:10 p.m.

Tomorrow: Zack Wheeler faces Braves with a chance to go 4-0, 7:10 p.m.

Sunday: Phillies at Braves on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball, 7:08 p.m.

Monday: Off-day for Phillies.

Tuesday: Phillies open three-game series in Washington, 6:05 p.m.

So, here’s the good news for the Phillies: Aaron Nola is scheduled to start Friday night in Atlanta.

If you didn’t think Nola would ever be better than he was in 2018, when he finished third in the National League Cy Young balloting, have you checked out his first four starts? Nola is 2-1 with a 2.05 ERA, 37 strikeouts, and only four walks in 26 1/3 innings.

Since the Phillies came back from their coronavirus-related hiatus, Nola has been on a historic roll. He’s the first Phillies pitcher — and only the 14th pitcher all-time — to have three consecutive starts with no more than one earned run and three hits allowed and at least eight strikeouts. Justin Verlander is the only pitcher ever to do it four starts in a row.

Send questions by email or on Twitter @ScottLauber.

Question: Any chance the Phillies try and strengthen the rotation by adding a guy like Robbie Ray? He would slot perfectly behind [Zack] Wheeler, in front of [Jake] Arrieta. — @MikeTomasco, via Twitter

Answer: Hi, Mike. Thanks for the question. Ray’s name has arisen often over the last two years as a trade candidate. It figures to come up again before the Aug. 31 deadline, if only because the lefty will be a free agent after the season. But he’s off to a rough start (8.59 ERA and a slight dip in his strikeout rate), and the Diamondbacks are in the playoff mix in the NL West.

Also, as I wrote last week and others have noted elsewhere, the trade deadline is tricky this year. With the truncated season, the expanded playoffs, the inability to dispatch scouts to watch players and no minor-league season, even most general managers say they aren’t sure what to expect.

Will there be trades? Probably. Will there be blockbusters? Maybe not. Under the circumstances, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Phillies prioritize bullpen help over starting pitching.