PHILADELPHIA — Even among the elites in sports, sometimes, when you least expect it, when everything feels right … you just flat-out flop.
Jordan Romano might feel like he’s had a few fall-on-your-face kind of outings since he joined the Phillies as a free agent with the expectation that the two-time All-Star reliever would shore up the back end of the Phillies’ bullpen.
Romano started slow. He had a 9.00 ERA coming into play Saturday at Citizens Bank Park. And to kind of reflect on his early season stature here, he was asked to come on in the ninth inning of a game the Phillies were leading by seven runs over the talent-challenged Marlins.
And Romano chose that time for …
“Probably the worst night of my career,” he said after a humiliating appearance, which was bailed out only by closer Jose Alvarado to help the Phillies escape with an 11-10 win.
“I felt great out there, actually,” said Romano, the veteran from Markham, Ontario, who signed with the Phillies in the offseason. “That’s the best my arm’s felt for a long time. Go out there, I’m throwing strikes, I felt confident, honestly, in all my pitches.
“I just … I don’t know, they were really seeing it really well today.”
If he meant batters, that’s true, but it was the home team mostly doing that. The Phillies pounded Marlins pitching.
They had 15 hits before any of Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos — the Phils’ No. 3, 4 and 5 hitters — joined the offensive parade.
The battering continued through eight innings, the Phillies leading 11-4. Then in came Romano to finish off what should’ve been a formality, and before he knew what was happening, Marlins were circling the bases, then No. 9 hitter Liam Hicks hit a three-run home run, and the once celebrating Citizens Bank Park citizens were on the verge of revolt.
“Probably the worst night of my career,” could be measured in Romano’s ERA going from 9.00 to 15.26. But it could also be measured in full-throated decibels by a lot of unhappy fans who saw an easy day for the Phillies come very close to becoming a late-afternoon nightmare.
“Everything I threw in there, I felt like (the Marlins hitters) were pretty comfortable with,” Romano said. “They were obviously putting pretty good swings on it. But again … I’m not exactly sure. Obviously when I ‘m up in the count I need to make better pitches, on 0-2 and 1-2. But, I still felt great out there. I just got crushed.”
“What’s crazy to me is I went out there and kind of executed what I wanted to do, it was just the worst result possible,” he added. “I wanted to go out there, I wanted to drive the zone with my heater and throw the slider in there for strikes. I mean, I did that. I just got crushed.”
Jesus Sanchez started it with a double on a 1-2 count. Eric Wagaman singled. Dane Myers — we’re not throwing out Hall of Fame names here — then crushed a first pitch to him into the left field seats to cut the lead to 11-7.
Romano gathered himself and induced Matt Mervis to ground out. Then Javier Sanoja grounded one to Alec Bohm, who gloved it, then seemed to take an extra half step before firing to first. The out signal was flashed, only to be overturned on review.
All seemed well when Connor Norby grounded into a force out. Romano then got to 0-2 on Graham Pauley, but he doubled to bring it to 11-8.
That brought on Hicks, a native of Toronto and Rule 5 pickup. With Alvarado warming up in the bullpen, Hicks took the count to 3-2, then took a second-straight four-seam fastball down the middle out of the park to right field.
Cue the screaming fans.
“You expect that when you’re pitching like that, for sure,” Romano said. “But no, I stuck with my plan, felt like I was making OK pitches, but uh, apparently not.”
“His stuff was good,” Rob Thomson echoed. “Velocity was up, slider looked like it had good shape to it. So it’s probably just execution.”
That would seem likely. Trying to save Alvarado for Sunday, Thomson didn’t want to execute a pitching change, either, until, he said, “he had to go.”
Romano at some point will go to the video, to try to find an answer to what’s ailing him in this new National League gig. Until then, his conclusions seem empty.
“My mindset was great,” he said. “The (velocity) was good. I just had one of those days.”
• • •
Taijuan Walker started for the Phillies and was faring fine until suddenly being lifted after four innings. Thomson said that Walker had shoulder stiffness, after a couple of long waits in the dugout while his team kept getting hits didn’t help matters.
“I couldn’t really extend it too much to the glove side, especially in the fourth inning with my cutter, and couldn’t force it into lefties,” Walker said of his shoulder issue. “I couldn’t really get it there all the way.
“Kinda sucks because I felt like I was in a really good groove. Getting a lot of ground balls and the splitter was working really well today.”
Over four April starts in place of recovering Ranger Suarez (back), Walker is 1-1 with a 2.29 ERA.
• • •
NOTES >> The Phillies had five steals and seven doubles. … Out of the 8 and 9 holes, the combo of Bohm and Johan Rojas went 5-for-9 with five runs scored, two doubles and an RBI. … Phillies’ electric lefty Jesus Luzardo (2-0, 2.31) goes on Easter Sunday against Miami’s Connor Gillespie.
Source: Berkshire mont
Be First to Comment