BALTIMORE — For six weeks, there was a defined order to how Don Mattingly ran the Phillies’ bullpen.
Then, Brad Keller blew out his elbow.
“I think it’s just a man down, right?” Mattingly said Saturday, a night after Orion Kerkering set a two-run lead ablaze in the seventh inning of a 6-4 loss to the Orioles. “It’s one less guy. And [Keller] was kind of the eighth-inning guy. Any time that guy is no longer there, just like a totem pole, everybody takes a step up.”
At least until the void is filled from somewhere else.
The trade deadline is two days away — 6 p.m. Monday — and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski is trying to fill multiple needs. Chief among them: late-inning relief, which was amplified by Friday night’s seventh-inning meltdown.
Keller signed a two-year, $22 million contract in the offseason to be the primary setup man for star closer Jhoan Duran. And Mattingly used him as such, with Kerkering and lefty José Alvarado mostly in the sixth and seventh innings.
Without Keller, Jonathan Bowlan has taken on a higher-leverage role alongside Kerkering from the right side. Alvarado has been better lately after an erratic first half in which underlying metrics suggested he was outpitching a poor ERA.
And still, the Phillies are a reliever (or two) short.
“For sure, yeah, we’re concerned,” catcher J.T. Realmuto said. “But we believe we have the guys in this room to get it done. We’ve got guys that have gotten a lot of big outs for us in the last few years and with really good stuff.”
The Phillies have been linked to old friend Jeff Hoffman, who has a 4.02 ERA for the Blue Jays but also has given up two earned runs in 19⅔ innings since June 9. They have expressed interest in Padres lefty Adrián Morejón, but San Diego was only game behind the Phillies for the last wild-card spot entering play Saturday.
Kerkering sounded like he expects that the Phillies will reinforce the bullpen.
“Everyone knows it at the end of the day,” he said. “But I don’t think anyone thinks about it, like when you’re out there or getting ready for the day.”
A change in Painter
Andrew Painter knew he was going to pitch Friday night. He didn’t imagine it would be for the Phillies.
“No,” he said, laughing.
But team officials met Thursday and decided Painter represented the Phillies’ best chance to win a game from the fifth-starter spot. So, they recalled him from triple A, and he gave up two runs in six innings, among his best starts in his brief major league career.
Will he make his next start when the No. 5 spot comes around again Wednesday at home against the Nationals?
“He’s in our rotation,” Mattingly said. “So at this point, there’s no talk of sending him out or anything like that.”
In other words, check back after the trade deadline.
But team officials agreed that Painter demonstrated improvement in his return from the minors. In particular, he ditched his splitter and replaced it with a circle-changeup, which gave him a better offspeed weapon against left-handed hitters.
“The split was great early this year, and then got a little inconsistent and started cutting it,” Painter said. “So I was just looking for some sort of shape that was consistent, something where I knew what it was going to do, where it was going to go when I threw it.”
Painter worked with the Phillies’ pitching department to review starts from his breakout 2022 season in the minors. The effectiveness of his changeup stood out. So, Painter went back to the circle grip and started throwing it in triple-A games.
“It took probably two or three starts to get a feel for the changeup,” Painter said. “It’s such a feel pitch, whereas the splitter, you kind of just grip it and throw it as hard as you can. I feel like not pregripping a splitter 90 times a game helps. I think it helps the fastball a little bit.”
Over the last few weeks, the Phillies have scouted many available starting pitchers, including the Giants’ Robbie Ray, the Blue Jays’ Kevin Gausman, and the Mets’ Clay Holmes and Freddy Peralta.
As the deadline nears, they will have to decide if Painter is more trustworthy in the No. 5 starter spot. He has a 6.72 ERA is 15 games (13 starts).
“If there’s any way I can do that,” Painter said, “it’s something I want to do.”
Rincones sits again
Gabriel Rincones Jr.’s spot in the outfield mix is getting more tenuous by the day.
For the third time this week, Rincones — a left-handed hitter — didn’t start against a right-handed pitcher. Instead, righty-swinging Bryan De La Cruz was in right field. Rincones, on a 2-for-27 skid with 13 strikeouts, is batting .167 with a .488 OPS overall.
“I feel like I’ve watched enough that you’re just not seeing balls getting squared up,” Mattingly said. “If he was hitting balls on the nose all over the place and just not having results, it’d be different then. With what we’re seeing, I think De La gives us a better chance to win today.”
The Phillies are trying to add a right-handed bat before the trade deadline, though Rincones’ struggles may widen the search to include a left-handed hitter, too.
Extra bases
Right-hander Ramon Marquez, an emerging prospect in the Phillies’ farm system, tossed five scoreless innings and struck out seven betters on 68 pitches for high-A Jersey Shore. … Switch-hitting outfielder Steward Berroa cleared waivers and was outrighted to triple A. Berroa was designated for assignment last week. … Zack Wheeler (10-2, 2.53 ERA) is scheduled to start the series finale at 1:35 p.m. Sunday against Orioles righty Kyle Bradish (7-9, 3.74).