Phillies’ bullpen buckles then breaks in Game 4 of NLCS, as the pitching questions mount

PHOENIX — It all reached a crescendo when Phillies manager Rob Thomson made eye contact with his catcher and motioned with his hand. J.T. Realmuto needed to stall in the eighth inning, but that was an impossible task because the entire thing had collapsed under the pressure of compounding mistakes. A three-run lead had evaporated. One of the most accomplished closers in baseball history stood helpless on the mound.

This was the time for a change Friday night because, at that moment, the Phillies had ceded control of this National League Championship Series.

Thomson nudged Caleb Cotham, his pitching coach, to place another call to the bullpen to check on José Alvarado. He was ready for a left-on-left matchup against Arizona’s best hitter, Corbin Carroll. Realmuto exhausted every second of the mound visit. Craig Kimbrel looked toward the dugout. Thomson did not budge from his spot.

“Really,” Thomson later said after a crushing 6-5 defeat to the Diamondbacks in Game 4, “we’re trying to not use Alvarado if we absolutely could stay away from him.”

But every decision before that — starting Cristopher Sánchez on a 20-day layoff, carrying two pitchers on the NLCS roster that the Phillies do not want to use, asking multiple setup relievers to pitch more than one inning — meant Thomson was all-in on Game 4. He had to win a game in which he fired every bullet he had. The Phillies, before this NLCS, had identified Alvarado on Carroll as a favorable matchup. Their best against Arizona’s best.

Thomson was aggressive with his pitching changes at every turn until he allowed Kimbrel to face Carroll. Maybe the game’s fate was already sealed. Maybe not. Kimbrel hit Carroll with a first-pitch 95 mph fastball. The eventual winning run moved into scoring position. Now, Alvarado entered, and he surrendered the go-ahead run on his fifth pitch.

No one was safe from the anguish.

“We have to play better baseball,” Thomson said, “and that’s all there is to it.”

Not long after the game ended, Thomson sat at his desk. The room was quiet. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski and general manager Sam Fuld dissected the missteps with him. The brain trust meets after most Phillies games — good and bad — but there was too much to digest this time. This series is tied at two games apiece and there are real questions about how the Phillies proceed from here.

“The game’s over with,” Nick Castellanos said, “but now it’s a best-of-three series and we have home-field advantage.”

That is the optimist’s view. The counter to that: The Phillies had pitching advantages in Games 3 and 4 and they failed to capitalize on them. They have a deeper bullpen than Arizona but lost a Game 4 in which the Diamondbacks deployed eight pitchers. They have a Kimbrel problem and they have used four relievers who’ve pitched on back-to-back days with a third game in three days to be played Saturday night.

The Diamondbacks are just as taxed. Their top four relievers pitched in both Games 3 and 4. Zack Wheeler and Zac Gallen will have longer runways in Game 5. Whichever ace pitches better could decide this entire series.

But neither will throw a complete game; no pitcher has done that in a postseason game in six years.

“As a starter,” Wheeler said Friday afternoon, “I think your goal every time is to throw a complete game with no runs scored. I think that’s the goal every time. But realistically these days, the bullpens are probably a little better than they were, so teams take advantage of that.”

Now, the Phillies have no other choice. Wheeler must take the ball and he must carry his team. Wheeler has been terrific in the postseason, although he has faded late in all three outings. He has not allowed a run before the sixth inning. He’s allowed six runs (five earned) in the sixth and seventh innings of his starts.

It’s unclear whom Thomson can turn to in the later innings. It probably won’t be Kimbrel. “We have to talk about it, but do you put him in at a little lower leverage spot?” Thomson said. “I don’t know. I’ll talk with Caleb … and see where we’re at.” Orion Kerkering, the rookie reliever who entered Thomson’s trusted circle, could not throw strikes a night after hanging too many sliders. He had never pitched on back-to-back days before Friday and he’s probably not in the equation for Game 5.

Alvarado pitched two innings in Game 3 but needed only 15 pitches. He threw six pitches in Game 4. Can he pitch in Game 5? “Please,” Alvarado said. “Please.” Jeff Hoffman cut his right thumb during his strong outing to calm things early in Game 4, but he said he was fine after the athletic training staff stopped the bleeding. He’s never pitched on three consecutive days.

Seranthony Domínguez recorded four outs on 23 pitches. Matt Strahm threw 19 pitches for three outs. They all should be in play.

“We’re certainly not going to put people in jeopardy,” Thomson said, “but this is a tough group, and they want to play.”

None of the manager’s decisions matter when so many of his relievers cannot throw strikes. Gregory Soto, Kerkering, Kimbrel and Alvarado threw first-pitch strikes to just four of the 14 batters they faced. The Phillies walked 15 batters in their first eight games of this postseason. They have walked nine batters in two games here at Chase Field.

“I thought a lot of our pitchers looked sped up to me,” Realmuto said. “That’s what happens when you fall behind in counts and let base runners on. The place gets loud. They start feeling the crowd, the atmosphere. It’s the same thing our crowd does to the opposing pitchers when they’re in our house. The best way to not get sped up is to not let guys on base.”

This was the danger that always lurked. The Phillies bet on big stuff in their bullpen and, when it is in the strike zone, it’s difficult to hit. But the command of that stuff is sometimes fleeting.

“That’s the difference in the last two games from the first two games,” Realmuto said of the NLCS, which started with two wins at Citizens Bank Park. “We (had) 0-2, 1-2 counts in the first two (games) and now they’re 3-1, 2-0 counts. That’s how you turn good hitters into great hitters. That’s what we’ve done the last two nights. We’re just falling behind too much and not attacking the strike zone.”

A greater onus fell to the high-leverage relievers when the Phillies decided that neither Taijuan Walker nor Michael Lorenzen would factor into Game 4 unless it went to extra innings. (Lorenzen, relegated to mop-up duty, would have pitched the ninth if the Phillies had tied or went ahead; there was no one else available.) Walker was erratic in a simulated game earlier in the week so the Phillies decided to start Sánchez. The lefty exited after 2 1/3 innings. He did not have his changeup, a feel pitch, and the extended time between outings might have affected it.

The Phillies, functionally, have an 11-man pitching staff because Walker and Lorenzen are not trusted. Has it handcuffed them? “Well, both those guys are the length guys really,” Thomson said. “That’s how I see it. And Taijuan is really ready for extra innings if we need it or early in the game if we get down or we have a big lead. And kind of the same thing with Lorenzen.” Maybe one of them will have to enter a tight spot in Game 5. Maybe not.

It’s possible the Phillies send Ranger Suárez to the bullpen to reprise a role he filled last postseason. “We’ll see,” Suárez said. There would have to be a specific situation to use him because a relief appearance in Game 5 could disrupt his chances of starting a potential Game 7.

Right now, the Phillies are just concerned about halting Arizona’s momentum. Realmuto had made so many mound visits that, by the time Kimbrel entered, the team was concerned about conserving them. “I couldn’t really go out there much,” Realmuto said. “At that point, it’s kind of on himself.” Kimbrel drowned for the second time in two nights.

And, now, the wounds cut deep.

(Top photo of Craig Kimbrel, J.T. Realmuto and other Phillies players during an eighth-inning mound visit: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)