As Dodgers arrive - and as MLB trade deadline nears - Phillies must define success in 2019 | Extra Innings

Ready or not, here come the Dodgers.

Maikel Franco sent the Phillies home happy for a change with his walk-off home run Sunday. Not only was it the biggest hit the Phillies have gotten in a while, but Franco’s 100th career homer also staved off a potential three-game sweep by the Nationals and kept the DEFCON level at Citizens Bank Park from climbing any higher, at least for one day.

Now, though, the Dodgers bring the best record in baseball (62-33) to town for a four-game series that begins tonight. If nothing else, at least they figure to be exhausted after playing 12 innings in a 7-4 victory at Fenway Park on Sunday Night Baseball.

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— Scott Lauber (extrainnings@inquirer.com)

When the Phillies returned from the all-star break on Friday, team president Andy MacPhail held a rare press briefing in which he stated his belief that the club is more than one player away from winning the World Series.

On that point, at least, MacPhail is right.

Madison Bumgarner isn’t going to turn the Phillies into a championship team. Neither will Zack Wheeler. Or Matthew Boyd. Or Marcus Stroman. The Phillies have too many holes to give up a valuable asset before the July 31 trade deadline under the guise of going all-in on getting a World Series ring this year.

But MacPhail also said that the initial goal when the Phillies’ new regime took over after the 2015 season was to reach the postseason in four years. Well, this is Year 4, and guess what: They are hanging on by their eyelashes to the second wild-card spot in the National League, a half-game ahead of the Brewers and with three other teams (Cardinals, Diamondbacks, Rockies) sitting within 1 1/2 games back.

So, when you see the Red Sox acquire Andrew Cashner for next to nothing and the A’s trade even less to get fellow right-hander Homer Bailey, it makes you wonder why the Phillies have not yet made a similar low-risk move to give the starting rotation a potential boost.

Let’s be clear: Neither Cashner nor Bailey would solve the Phillies’ long-term pitching issues. For that, they must find consistent No. 2 and No. 3 starters, the likes of which don’t come cheap. It’s why they will regret their offseason misjudgment of their internal options, specifically Nick Pivetta and Vince Velasquez, and their subsequent inaction to acquire starting pitching.

But Cashner, Bailey and starters of their ilk have the potential to act as Band-Aids for a rotation that needs a few. They could be the 2019 version of Kyle Lohse or Joe Blanton, low-cost midseason additions who helped stabilize the Phillies’ rotation and contributed to successful playoff runs in 2007 and 2008, respectively.

Thus far, though, the Phillies have passed on taking any fliers. Zach Eflin, Velasquez and Pivetta will start the first three games of this week’s four-game series against the mighty Dodgers, and it’s reasonable to doubt if the Phillies will still retain possession of that wild-card spot by Thursday.

“Vinny and Pivetta, they can really pitch,” veteran starter Jake Arrieta said Sunday. “Obviously we need them to step up and be a little bit better for us, and I think they will. They know what’s at stake. They’re well aware of that. We believe in the group we have. We need some more out of our starters collectively, and I think that’s been the message from Day 1.”

“It’s easy to always look outside for the solution. It might be cliché, but we have the guys here that can continue to win on a consistent basis. We just need to perform and that’s really all there is to it.”

Assuming, that is, that making the playoffs remains the Phillies’ definition of a successful 2019 season.

Feel free to criticize Jake Arrieta all you want, even after he held the Nationals to one run in five innings Sunday despite that bone spur in his elbow, but in Bob Brookover’s opinion, the veteran right-hander hasn’t been as bad as you might think.

Tommy Hunter’s tough luck continued Sunday when he returned to the injured list with yet another forearm strain. This one could be season-ending.

The Big Piece said his piece. As Matt Breen writes, Ryan Howard closed the speech from his retirement ceremony by urging fans to have mercy on the current Phillies. “Don’t ever boo these men,” he said.

One month after undergoing season-ending ACL surgery, Andrew McCutchen has rejoined the Phillies. And as he told me Saturday, he’s ready to lend a helping hand.

Tonight: Eflin vs. Clayton Kershaw in opener against Dodgers, 7:05 p.m.

Tomorrow: Buehler? Buehler? Velasquez vs. Walker Buehler, 7:05 p.m.

Wednesday: Pivetta vs. Kenta Maeda, 7:05 p.m.

Thursday: Aaron Nola, on a five-start roll, vs. Dodgers’ Ross Stripling, 12:35 p.m.

Friday: Phillies open a three-game series in Pittsburgh, 7:05 p.m.

Are you wondering roughly when Jake Arrieta has been bothered the most by that marble-sized bone spur floating around in his right elbow?

Track his cutter usage.

Arrieta said the pain in his elbow tends to be most intense when he tries to throw his cutter, which forces him to turn his hand sideways as he releases the ball. His solution, then, has been to mostly shelve the pitch. He threw only one cutter Sunday against the Nationals. In a July 6 start against the Mets, after which he first dropped a hint of the injury, he didn’t throw any. He unleashed four cutters in a June 30 start against the Marlins.

By comparison, Arrieta leaned heavily on the cutter when he was healthy early in the season. He threw a total of 63 cutters in three starts from April 12 through April 22 and topped out at 25 cutters in a May 31 start against the Dodgers.

Send questions by email or on Twitter @ScottLauber.

Answer: Hi, Steve. Thank you for the question. First, for fans who are, say, under 40, a quick history lesson: Bystrom was a September call-up for the Phillies in 1980. He went 5-0 with a 1.50 ERA in five starts down the stretch, playing a big role in winning the division title, then started the clinching Game 5 of the epic NL Championship Series against the Astros.

OK, now that we’re all on the same page ...

Medina is on the 40-man roster, so there’s certainly a chance that he could get called up in September or sooner. But his walk rate is up and strikeout rate is down at double-A Reading. Last month, when the Phillies were hunting for fifth-starter alternatives before settling on Vince Velasquez’s return to the rotation, I was told -- and Gabe Kapler later said publicly -- that Medina wasn’t a consideration.

I’ve been wrong before, but my sense is that the Phillies want to see more consistency from the 22-year-old right-hander before pushing him into the big-league fire.