It took Brandon Workman one trip to be accepted into the fraternity of the used and abused Phillies bullpen.
In fact, it took him one pitch.
One day after being acquired from Boston as the centerpiece of a desperately needed bullpen makeover, Workman suffered a brutal baptism by Phillies in the demoralizing 6-5 loss to the Braves in Atlanta on Saturday night.
The Phillies’ fifth straight loss dropped them to 9-14.
Workman was charged with a blistering save after throwing just one pitch – Matt Adams hit it to the left for a two-run duel – in the eighth inning.
He later ran an inning off the field as the losing pitcher after giving up a two-out, bass-laden single to Adam Duvall.
In all, Workman faced nine fighters. Five reach base. He was tagged for four hits. He inherited two baserunners from trouble Hector Neris in the eighth and scored both. The Phils advised to ban the game in the top of the ninth before Workman gave up three more hits, including the one that had lost the game.
“That’s not the first impression I’m trying to make, of course,” Workman said afterward. “I do not do that on the mound. There is no excuse for that. I have to perform pitches better than I did last night and do a better job to get the job done.
“I’m not at all happy with how I hit the ball.”
The loss was excruciating not only because it happened late and late losses are always excruciating.
This one hurt terribly because the Phils missed a strong start from Zack Wheeler, who went seven innings, no one ran and eight out.
Wheeler took a 4-0 lead in the seventh and put innings in that end with a 4-2 lead. Baseball’s worst bullpen was needed to get six outs. It could not do it.
“If you’re ahead in a game like this and Wheeler’s does what he does, we need to win those games,” Bryce Harper said. “It’s a sure-shot win for us and we could not do that tonight.”
The Phils have blown a lead in each of the five losses during their losing streak. In those games, they held leads of 2, 2, 7, 1 and 4 runes.
“It’s no fun if you keep going,” said manager Joe Girardi. “Tomorrow is a new day. We have to be ready to play.”
It will be interesting to see who Girardi uses his closer as the Phils have a late lead in Sunday night’s series final against the Braves.
He met with Neris and Workman after coming to the club this past Saturday afternoon and told them he would use matchups to determine who would place eighth and who would pass ninth. Neris got the call to protect Saturday night’s two-run lead in the eighth and failed miserably. Of course, things could have been different if Marcell Ozuna’s baseball RBI single had been a double play by the right. It should have been, but the Phils were in a shift.
But why?
That’s what teams do today.
“It’s what the numbers tell us to do with our defense on the field,” Girardi said.
Both of the run-scoring hits that Workman gave up came on hanging curveballs. It was very humid in Atlanta and he seemed to have trouble catching the ball, but he did not use that as an excuse.
The Phils bullpen ERA is now 8.29, worst in the majors.
Yes, Workman knew the fate of the bullpen he was with, but it was not on his mind when he took the mound.
“Of course, I know the situation and how it went here, but that’s not something I think about when I try to do my job,” he said. “I did not do my job yesterday.”
Harper rode in three of the Phillies’ runes, two on a mammoth first inning homer.
After the game, he offered the cure for all that the Phillies are doing.
“We have minimal games to play this year,” he said, referring to the short 60-game schedule that is now down to 37 for the Phillies.
“We have to win. We have to go one stroke and nine out of 10. Win. It has to happen. That’s very difficult to do in baseball, but to get where we need to be, it has to happen.”
Nine out of 10?
With these bullpen?
Really?
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