In the ninth inning of Thursday’s loss to the Mets, the Phillies had the tying run at the plate and arguably their best hitter so far this season — Brandon Marsh — due up.
The lefty was set to face was Brooks Raley. He’s been super tough on left-handed batters over the past two seasons, but this year’s platoon splits tell a different story through 42 batters faced.
Brooks Raley’s slash lines against lefties
Marsh’s numbers against lefties have improved this year thanks to a scorching hot April where he was hitting everything. He went 2-for-17 with 10 strikeouts in May against lefties, but he played through a shoulder issue that was cutting off his swing for an undisclosed amount of time.
With Marsh representing the tying run, it was shocking to see him not at the plate. Instead, Thomson used a recent right-handed hitting call up in Drew Ellis to hit for Marsh.
Mets manager Buck Showalter countered the move by calling in right-handed pitcher Drew Smith to pitch to Ellis. Ellis swung at the first pitch and hit a fly ball to center to end the game.
As far as in-game decisions that backfired, taking out Zack Wheeler and putting in José Alvarado in Game 6 of the World Series will go down as the worst in his career, but it at least made some sense to put in your most dominate left-handed reliever to face Yordan Alvarez with runners on base.
Wheeler was pitching well, but managers tend to go to the bullpen when their starter looks vulnerable in the sixth inning of the World Series. Wheeler was flat out terrible in his last outing and struggled to hold his velocity later in the playoffs.
Anyway, the Phillies liked the way Ellis has been swinging the bat in the minor leagues, but there are a few things about this decision that are frankly inexcusable:
This is a weird time in the Philly sports calendar. The Sixers, a team that breeds indifference, just hired a new coach. Yawn. Eagles training camp is still weeks away, so the Phillies and their disappointing start to this season is at the forefront of sports talk radio.
A very select group of fans are already calling for Thomson’s firing. After all, it worked last year, right?
To that I say, please get a clue for once. The Phillies are not firing the manager who everyone fell in love with last year on the way to a National League pennant victory. There is something seriously wrong with you if you believe firing the manager will solve everything again.
On the other end, Thomson deserves criticism for when he makes a terrible in-game move and I can’t think of anything more nonsensical than what he did in the ninth inning on Thursday.
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