Here’s a fun fact. Or maybe it’s a depressing fact. Depends on your perspective. Either way, hey, it’s a fact: At present, Cole Hamels is the only Phillies pitcher who is 1) healthy and 2) under contract for next year. A.J. Burnett, who will turn 38 in January, has an option. So it’s pretty much just Hamels.
Upon reflection, that probably falls closer to the depressing end of the fact spectrum.
The Phillies might as well hang help wanted signs all over Citizen Bank Park. Now hiring starting pitchers for 2015.
As baseball games go, Wednesday’s outing at Citizens Bank Park between the last-place Phillies and the equally awful Astros -- who are somehow not in last place thanks to the unthinkably bad Rangers -- didn’t offer much intrinsic entertainment value. One bad team (the Phillies) beat the other bad team (the Astros), 10-3. Some quick notes about that for the handful of you who can’t get enough baseball: It was the first time the Phillies have won back-to-back series at home all season. And the Phillies scored more runs in the first inning (five) than they did in their previous four games combined (four).
OK. So that’s enough of that.
Aside from adding a meaningless win to the Phillies’ record and one more loss to Houston’s ledger, Wednesday functioned as another audition for next year’s pitching staff. David Buchanan had a tryout earlier this season. When Cliff Lee went down with an elbow injury (again) last week, Buchanan got a call back. If Buchanan hopes to get a leading role in the Phillies' deteriorating drama next year, it would help if he performed well with the big-league lights on him between now and the end of the season.
Against the Astros, Buchanan threw 102 pitches (68 for strikes) over 6 1/3 innings, giving up nine hits and three earned runs. He struck out five and didn’t allow a walk.
“Your objective is to be successful at the big-league level,” Buchanan said about getting sent down and called up again. “The stuff I was learning, I tried to take it down to [Triple A] Lehigh [Valley] and continue to work on it and build on what I was doing up here.”
Buchanan’s first stint with the Phillies this season featured mixed results. He went 5-5 with a 4.40 ERA. In 59 2/3 innings, Buchanan gave up nine home runs, but the 25-year-old got better as he went along. He surrendered 10 hits to the Nationals in his worst start in early June, then made seven straight appearances in which he allowed six or fewer hits.
Wednesday’s return to the majors was a good outing for Buchanan. Considering the uncertainty surrounding the Phillies' starting rotation, it's not unthinkable to imagine Buchanan winning a big-league job with the Phillies as this season bleeds into next.
“Yeah, it’s a good opportunity for him,” Ryne Sandberg said. “He made a good showing when he was here with us, and now he’ll have some starts. It’s an opportunity for him to show what he can do, to learn from it, to get better, and gain experience and continue to impress.”
Buchanan got his first major-league hit and RBI in the first inning against the Astros -- then he got thrown out at second base on the same play while trying to stretch a single into a double. Oops. The kid got excited.
“I did that in spring training and I had the same result -- I got thrown out,” Buchanan said. “I think from now on, I’ll stay at first base.”
Did he think he had the extra bag?
“I was safe,” Buchanan said with a smirk. “I was safe.”