Phillies in tough situation with struggling Jose Alvarado originally appeared in NBC Sports Philadelphia
PITTSBURGH – Do the Phillies have a problem with Jose Alvarado?
It’s not the question they wanted to ponder right after the All-Star break.
Alvarado picked up a save Friday night in an 8-7 loss to the Pirates, allowing four of the five batters he faced to reach base.
The Phillies blew two three-run leads and lost 11 baserunners, so Alvarado was far from the only culprit.
Still, it’s hard to ignore his recent troubles. He has allowed seven runs and 13 baserunners in his last 4⅓ innings. The Phillies have won four of those five games, so they were less of a standout than they were on Friday at PNC Park.
“Things aren’t going the way I want them to, but I feel good (physically),” Alvarado said. “Baseball is like that. It’s difficult when you get to bigger moments and lose the game, but that’s the game.
“What I think is that it’s not about how we start, it’s about how we finish. I’ve always kept in mind that this is how we finish. I’m going through a difficult time right now, but I’m going to keep working and doing my best and we’ll see in the future.” end of the year how it worked for me.”
Alvarado threw his sinker at 100 mph, so speed wasn’t an issue. He just got a lot of plate, the Pirates put the bat on the ball and found holes. He also didn’t help himself by walking Andrew McCutchen on five pitches to put the winning run on base and then losing track of both baserunners, who executed a double steal.
“It looks like the stuff is there, the speed is there, the shapes are there, he’s just not getting a lot of swing and miss, so he must be missing the base,” manager Rob Thomson said. “I’ve seen a lot of guys go through that throughout the year and they’ve fought their way out of it and he will.”
The Phillies have been here before with Alvarado. In 2022, he struggled early and was optioned to the minor leagues just before Memorial Day, then returned and was all but lights out from that point through the end of the 2023 season.
Sometimes a struggling reliever benefits from spending a week or two in low-leverage situations. The Phillies have two other effective lefties in their pen with late-game experience, Matt Strahm and Gregory Soto, so they could simply trade Alvarado for one of them until Alvarado gets his groove back.
“If that’s what needs to be done, then I will certainly do it,” Thomson said.
The Phillies had a rested bullpen coming out of the All-Star break and Thomson managed aggressively, turning to Soto after Aaron Nola threw 80 pitches in five innings. Nola showed rust early in the game after a seven-day layoff. The Phillies scored three runs on him in the top of the first, but he returned it in the bottom half. They put it to another lead in the fourth and the Pirates responded again immediately.
“Lots of stressful proposals at the beginning,” Thomson said. “Going into the game, we were thinking about a 90-95 pitch limit just to back him off a little bit because he’s going to be resting regularly next time.”
The Phillies took a three-run lead into the bottom of the seventh inning with their usually effective bullpen formula of Orion Kerkering, Jeff Hoffman and Alvarado ready to go. Kerkering made a rare misstep, allowing multiple runs for the first time in his 46 big league starts.
Hoffman continued to eliminate the side order in the eighth, but Alvarado was unable to hold the top of the Bucs’ order in the ninth.
“He’s going to bounce back,” Nola said of Alvarado. “The hit is the key for him. The ball squirted through the hole and bounced high with the infield playing. It’s kind of unfortunate, but he’ll come back, nobody’s worried about him.”
Except, perhaps, a fan base still haunted by Joe Carter, Yordan Alvarez and the idea of this giant Phillies team being undone by a premature bullpen collapse.
