PHOENIX — With one out in the bottom of the seventh inning, Bailey Falter motioned to the Phillies dugout. Interim manager Rob Thomson rushed to the mound with assistant athletic trainer Aaron Hoback, and in an instant, the best start of Falter’s big league career came to an abrupt and unfortunate halt.
The early diagnosis was right groin tightness, but the Phillies plan to have Falter undergo further evaluation. Nevertheless, it was a blow to both the Phillies — who have four pitchers on the injured list — and Falter, who was at a career-high 6 1/3 innings pitched, and had allowed only five hits and one earned run with six strikeouts in the Phillies’ 18-2 win over the Diamondbacks.
What Falter has done over the past few months is not easy. Since April 26, he’s been shuffled between Triple-A and the big league club seven times. Wednesday marked the first time this season that the left-handed pitcher made his third straight start with not just the Phillies, but any team.
He’s been used as a reliever. He’s been used as a starter. He’s been asked to go one inning, seven innings, and everything in between. It’s a lot of inconsistency for a young pitcher, and not all of those outings have gone well. Falter entered his start on Wednesday with a 4.41 ERA over 51 innings pitched in 2022.
But Falter has recently shown an ability to step up to the moment when his team needs him the most. Take his Aug. 20 start against the Mets. The Phillies put Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler on the mound to take games one and two, and lost. But under Falter, they got their only win of that four-game set. He went six innings and allowed only one earned run against a Mets lineup that had scored a combined nine earned runs against the Phillies’ two veteran aces.
That performance did not earn him an extended look in the big leagues. Falter was the 27th man in Game 2 of the Phillies’ doubleheader that night, so he was back in triple-A Lehigh Valley 24 hours later. But he did the job that was asked of him and on Wednesday night in Arizona, he did the same.
After the Phillies dropped two straight to the Diamondbacks, the 25-year-old southpaw took the mound, tasked with saving his team from a three-game sweep. The Phillies starters who preceded him, Nola and Ranger Suárez, had failed to pitch deep into their starts, forcing interim manager Rob Thomson to rely on his bullpen more than he would have liked to. But Falter was locked in, deftly mixing his sinkers and four-seamers and just enough curveballs to keep the Diamondbacks off balance. It was a performance to remember. Now, we wait to see if he’ll be able to give them a few more.
Offense explodes
Every hitter in the Phillies’ starting lineup recorded at least two hits on Wednesday night. The Phillies went 15-for-29 with runners in scoring position — yes, you read that right — and scored a season-high 18 runs and 22 hits. Interestingly enough, they did not hit a home run. They drove in most of their runs via singles and doubles. But the steady stream of offensive production was a promising sign, especially after a quiet night on Tuesday.
