NEW YORK — José Urquidy lost one job Tuesday, found another Thursday, and barely sat down in the Phillies’ bullpen here Friday night when he was told to warm up.
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“Hired gun,” interim manager Don Mattingly said.
Swell. How many more can the Phillies find?
Because with eight games left in the season, 11 days before the start of the wild-card miniseries, they are down one ace starter (Jesús Luzardo) and one setup reliever (Jonathan Bowlan). A pitching staff that was never deep in the first place is leaking oil.
And even though Urquidy introduced himself with 4⅔ scoreless innings, the Phillies lost, 6-3, to the Mets on three first-inning runs against opener Tim Mayza and Juan Soto’s three-run homer in the sixth against embattled Orion Kerkering.
“Just a rough last couple of months,” Kerkering said, and he might have been understating the depths of an 8.84 ERA since July 22, including runs in seven of his last eight appearances. “I think tonight was a lot better executing besides one pitch to Soto. But it’s just the turnaround, hopefully here soon.”
Soon, or never.
Zoom out, and the Phillies (85-69) stayed tied for the top National League wild card because the Cubs (85-69) blew a one-run lead in Cincinnati. But the Padres (84-69) could’ve forced a three-way tie with a win at home over the Marlins.
How’s that for putting the “wild” in wild-card race?
It wouldn’t be quite as wild as Urquidy’s week. He got designated for assignment by the White Sox and was back in Chicago with his family when his agent called Thursday with an offer from the Phillies.
But there was one catch: Urquidy won’t be eligible for the postseason, assuming the Phillies get in, because he wasn’t in the organization on Sept. 1.
“I threw a little bit, and they told me to plan to come here [Friday] and throw,” said Urquidy, a 31-year-old righty who faced the Phillies in the 2022 World Series. “They asked me if I was ready for the day, and I said yes and everything was good.”
Wait, he threw Thursday? With whom?
“I found an academy in Chicago,” Urquidy said. “The academy was behind the airport, and I threw there. I was watching the time to see when my flight. It was a very crazy afternoon, actually.”
The only thing crazier would’ve been if Urquidy started the game. Instead, the Phillies went with Mayza, who delivered three scoreless innings last Saturday night in Atlanta after Luzardo was scratched with an inflamed left shoulder.
This time, Mayza faced five batters and got one out.
Soto and Bo Bichette put up back-to-back 10-pitch at-bats against Mayza before Carson Benge smashed an RBI single. And by the time Urquidy could get ready, the bases were loaded with one out.
Nice to meet you, too.
A.J. Ewing greeted Urquidy with a two-run single. But Urquidy set down 10 of the next 11 batters, and the Phillies chipped away at a 3-0 deficit against lefty Zac Thornton.
“José was really good today,” Mattingly said. “It was fun to watch, actually. It just seemed calm all day and no real panic in any situation. Yeah, it was fun to watch.”
Mattingly could choose to start Urquidy next Thursday when Luzardo’s turn in the rotation comes up again.
By then, the Phillies hope to have secured a wild card.
Unless the bullpen keeps melting down. It would help, of course, if the Phillies scored more than three runs, which has happened twice in the last eight games. But Mattingly is also running out of relievers that he can trust, especially with Bowlan sidelined now by a strained right groin.
Kerkering was making his first appearance in six days because of a case of turf toe. He gave up a leadoff infield single and a one-out single before hanging a sweeper to Soto with two outs.
Three Septembers ago, Kerkering made a meteoric rise to the majors because of his sweeper. It will always be his best pitch. But even he wonders if he has become too predictable.
“It’s maybe a factor of guys sitting on it more,” he said, noting that he throws his sweeper nearly 50% of the time. “It’s just been my bread and butter. I think most guys, if they shouldn’t know, they probably already know that’s my pitch now. I’m just trying to figure out how to attack guys a little bit better and go from there.”
Whatever the case, the Phillies need Kerkering to figure it out. Because Mattingly has little choice other than to keep using him.
“The one thing I can’t do is look backwards, right? And he can’t either,” Mattingly said. “And obviously, with Bow going down, we’re going to need good innings out of Kerky.
“Anybody that gives up runs, when things aren’t going good, your confidence is not sky high like when you’re getting all your outs and everything’s going smoothly. But we’ve got to get past that at this point.”
After all, there are only so many hired guns available.
Matt Klentak‘s fingerprints are still on the Phillies’ roster six years after he was the team’s general manager. These days, Klentak is part of the front office for the Brewers, who recently clinched their fourth consecutive NL Central title. With the Brewers coming to town Tuesday, Klentak joined Phillies Extra to discuss his current and former teams. Watch here.
You can also subscribe to the podcast version of Phillies Extra on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Previous episodes: Jeff Francoeur | Luke Murton | Mike Hazen | Tony Gwynn Jr. | Kevin Stocker | Bobby Dickerson | Jim Bowden | John Middleton | Ryan Howard | Dan Baker
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