Phillies lose Caleb Kilian to oblique strain

Kilian was done for the day regardless, but he seemed to be in quite a bit of pain after getting Alejandro Kirk to popup. It definitely looked like the kind of thing that would lead to an IL stint.

Kilian missed all of last season with a labrum strain, and he returned this season as a full-time reliever. He has posted a 4.26 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, and 53/20 K/BB ratio in 44 1/3 innings for the Giants. He’s been mostly better than those numbers would indicate, but a few bad appearances have dragged the surface-level stats down. He’s an interesting add for the middle of the Phillies’ bullpen. Erik Miller will likely continue to get the save chances in San Francisco.

Arraez is continuing to do what he’s always done and hit, slashing .324/.360/.440 on the season for the Giants with four home runs, 52 runs scored, and 10 steals. What’s new this year is that he’s playing tremendous defense at second base. Which begs the question of what’s next for the Phillies? The Phillies have Bryson Stott at second base, Bryce Harper at first base, and Kyle Schwarber at DH, so there don’t seem to be any openings for Arraez. They could opt to move Bryce Harper back to the outfield, or perhaps Stott or third baseman Alec Bohm will be headed somewhere else today.

Even though he’s walked 22 in 31 1/3 innings, Miller is pretty clearly manager Tony Vitello’s most trusted reliever at the moment. That doesn’t mean he’ll get all of the save chances, since it will make sense to play matchups with him at time. Still, he’s probably a better use of a roster spot than Caleb Kilian in fantasy leagues right now.

The Giants’ right-hander did an excellent job here, stranding the extra runner and giving the Giants a prime opportunity to walk it off in the home half of the 10th inning. He’s in the midst of a mediocre season overall for the Giants, posting a 4.57 ERA, 1.33 WHIP and a 49/18 K/BB ratio over 41 1/3 innings in his 42 appearances. He has also notched three victories and eight saves on the season and still looks like the best option to see save chances in a nightmarish Giants’ bullpen.

Kilian entered in a tie game in the bottom of the ninth inning. He allowed a ground ball single to start the inning. The next two Royals hitters bunted and the game was over. It wasn’t like Kilian got hit very hard in this outing, but he also hasn’t recorded a save since July 4. Fantasy managers looking for saves should look elsewhere.

Miller replaced Keaton Winn in a tie game in the eighth and remained in after the Giants scored twice in the bottom of the inning, as Caleb Kilian was left in the pen after blowing his last save chance on Friday. Miller gave up a leadoff single, but he retired three in a row afterwards, winning an 11-pitch battle with Cole Carrigg to end the game. Miller could be a possibility to pick up some saves after the break. He could also be a candidate to be traded if the Giants decide to sell, but since he’s not going to be a free agent until after 2029, the team would demand a significant return.

Single, walk, bunt single, single. That was enough to doom Kilian tonight. In total, the three hits had a combined xBA of .970. Mickey Moniak grounded through the right side of the infield to start the frame. After a walk, Jake McCarthy went to sacrifice the runners, but he wound up with a hit because Casey Schmitt was playing rather far back at third for some reason; McCarthy had already showed bunt twice in the at-bat. After that, Kyle Karros hit a ball up the middle at just 69 mph, but that was still hard enough to elude a drawn-in infield and plate two runs. Combined with his four-run outing in a loss to the A’s on June 25, this makes two really ugly lines for Kilian in the last few weeks. Still, in neither blown save was he hit very hard at all. He’ll likely remain the Giants’ closer for now, but the team does have a potential alternative with Keaton Winn back from the IL. Winn retired two of the three batters he faced tonight.

Kilian was summoned to close out the game in Coors with a three-run lead. He gave up one run on a pair of hits and struck out two batters to hold on for his eighth save of the season, to go with a 4.14 ERA across 37 innings.

He struck out Adrian Del Castillo and Nolan Arenado before getting Pavin Smith to ground out tonight. Kilian improved to 3-for-4 in save chances since officially being named the Giants’ closer and 7-for-9 overall on the season.