NEW YORK — It took until 3:15 a.m. for Pete Mackanin to fall asleep after his bullpen blew a pair of late two-run leads in a horrific 9-8, 11-inning loss to the New York Mets on Thursday night (see story).
“I woke up at 7:30 and the first thing I thought about was the game,” Mackanin said. “I don’t remember ever coming from behind and having two two-run leads and not winning the game. That was tough.”
In replaying the loss in his mind, Mackanin reached the conclusion that it was time to get Jeanmar Gomez out of the closer’s role — at least temporarily. Gomez blew a two-run lead in the ninth inning as his ERA over his last 17 games rose to 11.20.
“I had a chat with Jeanmar and I told him that he’s our closer,” Mackanin said. “But the way I look at it, he’s in a slump — like a hitter. So I told him for the next couple of chances to close, I’m going to try somebody else just to give him a break. I told him, ‘You’re still the closer, stay positive, there’s a good chance you’ll have another opportunity to close a game. But the next couple I’m going to give you a little breather.’ So he’s aware of it.”
Mackanin did not say specifically who would get the next save chance. He offered that it could be Hector Neris or Edubray Ramos or even lefty Joely Rodriguez if the opposing club is stacked with lefty hitters.
Mackanin can be flexible with the situation and he really does not need a long-term solution to the closer issue because there are only nine games remaining in the season. Gomez has 37 saves (and six blown saves), but he was hardly a shoo-in to be the closer next season. The Phillies would probably rather have a power/strikeout arm like Neris in the role and there’s no guarantee Gomez will even return in 2017. He could be traded.
At the moment, it’s clear that Mackanin wants to show Gomez some respect for the season he’s had. Coming out of spring training, Gomez was slotted to work the seventh or eighth inning. He moved to the closer role when others failed early in the season.
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Gomez had struggled for several weeks, but Mackanin wanted to give him one more shot to keep his job Thursday night. That show of loyalty blew up in Mackanin’s face and now he’s going to tap-dance through the ninth inning for the final nine games of the season.