Vince Velasquez gives Phillies five solid innings in first start of season
The Phillies need a trustworthy No. 5 starter who can keep them in a game so the offense can win it. Velasquez gave them just that Monday night.
A few hours before Monday night’s game, Gabe Kapler cued up his laptop and pushed “play” on a five-pitch at-bat that illustrated why the Phillies can’t seem to quit on Vince Velasquez as a regular member of their starting rotation.
The video was from last Tuesday night in Washington. Making a relief appearance that served as a tuneup for his first start of the season and facing Nationals second baseman Brian Dozier, Velasquez got ahead in the count with a first-pitch fastball. He barely missed with a slider, then froze Dozier with a curveball for strike two. After burying a breaking pitch in the dirt, Velasquez came back with a 95-mph heater and got Dozier to swing through it.
“When we dream on Vince,” Kapler said, “that sequence is kind of what we’re dreaming about. Now, if he did that all the time, he’d be a superstar.”
The Phillies don’t need the 26-year-old Velasquez to be a superstar. They do, however, need a trustworthy No. 5 starter, a pitcher who can keep them in a game long enough to give their powerful, quick-strike offense a chance to win it.
Velasquez fit that description perfectly on Monday night. Facing the Nationals again, he gave up a two-run homer to Kurt Suzuki in the second inning but little else. He threw 80 pitches in five innings, a reasonable workload for his first start of the season, and left a 2-2 game for Rhys Hoskins to untie with a pair of solo home runs.
From there the bullpen passed the baton -- Seranthony Dominguez, to lefty Adam Morgan, to David Robertson, and finally to Pat Neshek -- in a series-opening 4-3 victory, the Phillies’ seventh win in nine games to begin the season.
Nice start, right? For Velasquez, too.
“I’m taking it,” he said. “Started off a little bit shaky and then kind of settled in toward the end. It’s the first start of the year and can only improve from here.”
Velasquez’s spring training was so rocky that the Phillies decided to take advantage of three days off in the season’s first eight days to delay his first start. But he looked sharp enough against the Nationals. He gave up four hits and, most significant, didn’t issue any walks.
Improving his command was a point of emphasis for Velasquez throughout spring training. Rather than trying to pile up the strikeouts, a tendency that often caused him to overthrow, he has been more content to simply get weak contact.
“Ideally, it’s just learning how to pitch,” he said. “I only had two strikeouts today. Normally I’m trying to go for that out pitch. But it’s just pitch to contact and try to make them put the ball in play.”
Kapler had another theory for Velasquez’s success. The right-hander allowed catcher J.T. Realmuto to guide him through the game, and according to Kapler, there’s no better guide.
“J.T. does a really good job in his game planning, in his preparation, in leading Vince through an outing like that,” Kapler said. “I think it would be wise for Vinny to really lean heavily on J.T. in his next outing and outings after that.”
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