Amid struggles, Evan Phillips has a tenuous hold on Dodgers’ closer role
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts stopped short of saying Evan Phillips was no longer his closer, but the struggling right-hander’s grip on the ninth-inning role has clearly slipped.
“To be quite honest, I’m going to pitch him in leverage, but I don’t know what that looks like,” Roberts said before Monday night’s 3-2 win over the San Francisco Giants. “Can I see him still finishing games with the right lanes? Absolutely. But is there a chance I pitch him in the seventh inning in leverage? Sure.”
Phillips had a 1.52 ERA and converted all 13 of his save opportunities in 25 games through June 29, holding opponents to a .186 average and .492 on-base-plus-slugging percentage.
But in eight appearances since June 30, Phillips was rocked for nine earned runs and 12 hits, including four home runs, in 7⅓ innings for an 11.05 ERA that boosted his season ERA to 3.77. He yielded a .364 average and 1.265 OPS in that stretch.
A 35-year-old left-hander who signed a one-year contract with the Dodgers, James Paxton had given the team’s short-handed rotation key innings over the first half of the year.
“I went to Doc a few days ago and said, ‘Hey, I have a higher standard for myself, I know I’m pitching below that bar right now, and I understand that whatever needs to be done will be done,’ ” Phillips said Monday. “Fundamentally, when I pitch, it’s to help us win games. Period.”
Phillips did not appear to show any ill effects from a right-hamstring strain that sidelined him for most of May, giving up only two hits in eight scoreless innings with seven strikeouts and three walks in nine games from June 11 to June 29.
But after giving up a run in a meaningless mop-up inning of a 10-4 loss at San Francisco on June 30, his downturn over his next five games was sharp:
July 2: Phillips gives up a solo home run on a 93-mph cut-fastball to Arizona slugger Joc Pederson that gives Arizona a 5-4 lead in the top of the ninth, but the Dodgers score twice in the bottom of the ninth for a 6-5 win.
July 6: Phillips gives up a solo homer on an 84-mph sweeper to Milwaukee slugger Christian Yelich that ties the score 3-3 in the top of the eighth. The Dodgers score twice in the bottom of the eighth for a 5-3 win.
July 13: Phillips enters the game at Detroit with a 9-6 lead in the bottom of the ninth and gives up an RBI single to Carson Kelly and a tying two-run homer to Colt Keith on a 93-mph first-pitch cutter, the Tigers erasing a five-run deficit. Detroit goes on to win 11-9 in 10 innings.
Gavin Lux stands to lose a lot when Mookie Betts returns, but his weekend performance against Boston could be part of a broader resurgence in his game.
Saturday: Phillips gives up a two-run homer to Tyler O’Neill on an 83-mph sweeper that gives Boston a 6-4 lead in the top of the 10th. The Dodgers score twice in the bottom of the 10th to tie and once in the bottom of the 11th for a 7-6 walk-off victory.
Sunday: Phillips starts the top of the ninth with a 9-3 lead but gives up a single to Ceddanne Rafaela, a ground-rule double to Dominic Smith and a two-run double to Jarren Duran. He strikes out O’Neill but walks Rafael Devers and Connor Wong to load the bases before being replaced by Daniel Hudson, who closes out a 9-6 win.
“Whether you’re a starter, a reliever or a hitter, it ebbs and flows, you go in these slumps, and right now, the command is a little off,” Roberts said. “And then there’s been a little bit of a [loss of] confidence. When you go through some struggles, that’s part of it. But we need him to be good. And it’s our job to kind of get him back to being who he is.”
Phillips said he feels fine physically and that his stuff “is really close for the most part.” But he admitted that his performance has been impacted by some negative self-talk and his inability to control his emotions and adrenaline on the mound.
“Conviction [in my pitches] isn’t really a problem,” Phillips said. “It’s more of a mindset, a shift in focus, straying too far away from what my thought process is on the mound, putting too much stock in the weight of the game, the shift in momentum and some of my outings that have cost the team a lead or whatever it might be.
“I’m trying to get back to individualizing each pitch and being convicted in each pitch, having a clear understanding of what I’m trying to do with those pitches and executing better. … I’m doing everything I can to get back on track as fast as possible.”
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