Phillies rank with National League’s best at Memorial Day marker. Here’s how they can get even better. | Extra Innings

Sunday, while much of America was enjoying burgers and hotdogs on the grill, the Phillies got smoked like bratwurst, 9-1, in Milwaukee in the finale of a three-game series. And we’re here to say, “So what?"

That’s right. Never mind that the Phillies were held to one hit, an Andrew Knapp solo homer, by emerging Brewers ace Brandon Woodruff. As much as they would’ve preferred a sweep, the Phillies proved their point. By going 4-3 on a weeklong trip to Chicago and Milwaukee, they confirmed that they are, in fact, what we thought they were.

"We’re one of the best teams in baseball,” Jake Arrieta said Saturday. “We’re rolling and we feel good about where we’re at. I think we just showed the rest of baseball that we’re one of the best teams, and we deserve to be in that category.”

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— Scott Lauber (extrainnings@philly.com)

There are several logical checkpoints along the way in a six-month baseball season. The all-star break is one. The trade deadline is another. The first, though, is typically Memorial Day, which offers two months’ worth of data for a team to conduct a self-assessment.

The Phillies like what they see. They are 31-22, the third-best record in the National League. They occupy first place in the NL East, 1 ½ games ahead of the surging Braves. They have a plus-27 run differential, fourth-best in the league. And they have won or split eight of their last nine series.

Just imagine if Bryce Harper was hitting.

And if the bullpen was healthy.

Indeed, there are ways for the Phillies to improve over the next two months. As the trade market begins to form in June and early July, general manager Matt Klentak will be on the lookout for upgrades, most likely in the pitching staff. Internally, though, the Phillies can get better simply by getting better, both in terms of health and performance.

Start with Harper. He went 5-for-28 with 11 strikeouts on the road trip, proof that his early-season slump is not yet behind him. In particular, he’s having trouble with fastballs. He has swung and missed at 83 heaters, second-most in baseball behind Arizona’s Christian Walker, according to Statcast. Of those, 20 have come on pitches that are 97 mph or faster, which also leads the majors.

Harper’s 8.4 percent whiff rate on fastballs is higher than his mark from last year (7.0 percent) and well above his career rate entering this season (5.4 percent), which means it’s likely to normalize over time. But what if it doesn’t?

“I have zero concerns on Bryce Harper,” manager Gabe Kapler said Sunday. “I am so confident that his numbers are going to be there at the end of the year. We’ve seen in the last couple of weeks flashes of it being where it needs to be. That is more ingrained in my mind right now than today’s game, which was really the result of the opposing pitcher being on point.”

It’s fair to lean on Harper’s track record as a reason for optimism. But the Phillies’ bullpen is another story. With Pat Neshek joining Tommy Hunter, David Robertson and Victor Arano on the injured list -- and none likely to return any time soon -- the Phillies are counting on converted starter Vince Velasquez to be a force in relief.

But just when you start thinking about Velasquez as the second coming of Brett Myers in 2007, the Brewers jump him for four runs in the fifth inning Sunday. Reality check?

“I think it’s going to be a bit of a process," Kapler said, “and we’re going to need to demonstrate some patience and introduce him to situations at the right time and do our best to put him into good positions to succeed.”

It’s a lot to ask, just as it’s too much to expect Hector Neris, Adam Morgan and struggling Seranthony Dominguez to handle every high-leverage situation. The cavalry might come back, eventually. For now, the starters are going to have to get deeper into games and the Phillies will need contributions from unexpected sources in the bullpen.

Something about Zach Eflin didn’t look quite right against the Brewers yesterday. Maybe it was the stomach bug with which he had been dealing.

Nick Pivetta is about to get a second chance. Pivetta will re-enter the rotation Tuesday night for the series opener against the Cardinals, and Matt Breen has all the details.

Pat Neshek hit the injured list over the weekend with right shoulder inflammation, and it sounds like the veteran sidearmer might be out a while. Add Neshek to the list of injured Phillies relievers that includes Tommy Hunter, David Robertson and Victor Arano.

About those glasses that reliever J.D. Hammer wore yesterday in his big-league debut: “I figured if I was going to do it, then I was going to do it big," he told bespectacled Matt Breen. “So, I bought the big Rick Vaughn-looking glasses and just rolled with it.”

In case you missed it last week, we’ll bring it back again: Bryan Harper, brother of Bryce, is playing independent ball for $2,000 a month in Lancaster -- and loving every minute, as he told Bob Brookover in this great interview.

Today: Happy Memorial Day! Phillies are off.

Tomorrow: Nick Pivetta returns to Phillies’ rotation vs. Cardinals, 7:05 p.m.

Wednesday: Aaron Nola vs. Cardinals rookie Genesis Cabrera, 7:05 p.m.

Thursday: Jerad Eickhoff starts series finale vs. Cardinals, 1:05 p.m.

Friday: Phillies open a three-game series at Dodger Stadium, 10:10 p.m.

According to my dad, at least, Memorial Day used to be an occasion for teams to play a doubleheader. (Back then, presumably, children also walked uphill both ways in the snow to get to school.) But it does seem like a scheduling oddity that the Phillies don’t have even one game today.

It’s not terribly uncommon, actually.

Think about it: Memorial Day falls on a Monday, and teams often get Mondays off for travel between series. The Phillies have played every Memorial Day since 2005. Before that, though, they got the holiday off three times in a four-year span from 2002 to 2005.

The Phillies are 6-10 in their last 16 Memorial Day games.

Send questions by email or on Twitter @ScottLauber.

Question: How many options does an MLB player have? We hear all the time about a player having or not having options left. Is it short-sighted to frequently send players up and down because that uses up their options? --Rob H., via email

Answer: Thanks, Rob, for the excellent question. It can get a little complicated, but the best way to explain it is probably like this: Once a player is added to a team’s 40-man roster, the team holds three option years on that player. During those three years, the player can be moved between the minor leagues and the majors an unlimited amount of times. But once the player is no longer in that option-year window, he must clear waivers before getting outrighted off the 40-man roster and sent to the minors.

It behooves a team to have as many good, optionable players as possible, especially in the bullpen. The Phillies, for instance, use options as a way of getting fresh arms to the big leagues. That’s why it’s so common to see the likes of Edubray Ramos, Austin Davis, Enyel De Los Santos, Drew Anderson, and others shuttling so freely between the Phillies and Lehigh Valley.